A precise opening date has been earmarked for Crossrail – but London’s transport chief says he is not yet ready to share it with the public.
Transport for London commissioner Andy Byford promised that the date he is targeting for the start of Elizabeth line services under central London would be announced “soon”.
The opening date will definitely be before June 30 this year, as he previously pledged after taking control of the long-delayed £20bn train line, Mr Byford told the London Assembly on Monday.
Mr Byford, sensing the increasing excitement from Londoners about the imminent opening of Crossrail, said: “I am very confident that we will be able to announce an opening date soon.”
The east-west line, which will link Reading and Heathrow with Shenfield and Abbey Wood via twin tunnels between Paddington and Whitechapel, was initially meant to have opened in December 2018 but has fallen years and billions over budget.
Mr Byford told the assembly: “I can confirm this morning we remain on track… to open the Elizabeth line… within the first half of this year, by June 30, 2022.
“That date has not and will not slip on my watch.
“We have a date that we are working towards but until I’m certain… that we can open on that particular date, I’m not going to commit to it or publicly opine on it.
“There are a lot of dates that have come and gone. I am determined to stick to my promises. It will open by June 30.”
It is highly unlikely that Crossrail will be ready to open before the “purdah” period prior for the May 5 local elections starts in a fortnight, on March 28.
Purdah, also known as a period of “heightened sensitivity”, runs for five working weeks and prevents announcements being made by public bodies that could influence the outcome of elections.
Mr Byford said it would be possible to “technically” open the line during purdah – but not to have a “glitzy” launch attended by Mayor Sadiq Khan and other politicians. This means that the actual opening is unlikely to happen until after the local elections.
Nine of the 10 new stations are complete but there remain concerns about the reliability of the £1bn fleet of new trains.
Mr Byford has insisted that the Elizabeth line, as Crossrail will be renamed when services start operating, performs “flawlessly” from day one and will not allow it to open until he is certain that will be the case.
However problems have been occurring on the “boundary” between two signalling systems at Stratford, where electrical interference is believed to be the cause of the emergency braking system being applied automatically on the trains.
Mr Byford said there were no safety issues but said this disrupted a smooth service, as the trains needed to be reset. A meeting with manufacturers Alstom is planned for Monday night.
“The train isn’t as reliable as I needed it to be,” he said. He said a “number of weeks” running the trains “up and down, up and down” were required to be sure that all the glitches had been erased. A final software upgrade also needs to be installed.
Mr Byford said that Bond Street station remained three months behind schedule – meaning it was unlikely to be open when Crossrail opens.
It is one of two stations serving Oxford Street. Mr Byford revealed he had “ruled out” a plan to open half the station.
Only using one rather than both ticket halls at Bond Street which would prove more costly and would add to the delays, he told the assembly.
This means that trains will initially run through the station without stopping – preventing an interchange with the Jubilee line, and meaning that Oxford Street-bound passengers will initially have to use Tottenham Court Road.
Mr Byford said the “trial operations” dress rehearsal phase – which involves thousands of volunteers being evacuated from the trains and stations – was “virtually complete”.
