| Synopsis: |
The Department for Transport and Transport for London are jointly sponsoring the Crossrail programme to deliver a new rail service for London and the South East. When complete, the railway will run from Reading and Heathrow Airport in the west, to Abbey Wood and Shenfield in the east. The programme involves construction and improvement works costing up to GBP14.8 billion, including: building a new underground railway across central London; improving existing tracks to the east and west of London, and building and upgrading stations. It also includes buying a new fleet of trains at a cost of GBP1 billion, and appointing a new operator for the service. Crossrail Limited is delivering most of the programme, with Network Rail undertaking the work on existing sections of railway. Two years of planning took place before the construction began, allowing the scope to be well defined, resulting in only a handful of subsequent changes being required. Roles and relationships were clearly established in the programme's founding agreements, and Crossrail Limited had to pass the sponsors' early programme reviews to prove it had the right skills and capabilities in place.Recommendations for the Department include (i) That the lessons learned from Crossrail should be applied to other projects, most notably High Speed 2; (ii) The Department should develop a clearer understanding of the wider economic benefits of transport; (iii) It should set out how it weighs up different factors, including the benefit-cost ratio; (iv) Share its data and expertise in assessing transport projects with local authorities. |