Crossrail Update
Crossrail Chief Executive Mark Wild has set a six-month opening window that would see the Elizabeth Line open at some point between October 2020 and March 2021. But which stations will be finished first?
Custom House and Tottenham Court Road are front-runners – the first because it is a relatively simple overground station and the latter because much of the work for the Elizabeth Line was completed as part of the rebuilding of the London Underground station. But now Whitechapel – one of the more complicated Crossrail assignments – is emerging as a contender to be one of the first, with the main works contractor (a joint venture consisting of Balfour Beatty, Morgan Sindall and Vinci Construction) resolved to be ready at the latest by October 2020.
Whitechapel has had its fair share of problems. Earlier this year a report by the National Audit Office examining Crossrail contracts found the costs of C512, the main works contract, had increased by nearly 500% as a result of difficulties building around existing London Underground and Overground lines and station architecture (Modern Railways, June 2019). But walking around the new Elizabeth Line platforms at…
