Crossrail project delayed until late 2021

London's £18bn Crossrail project will not open before autumn 2021 in the latest embarrassment for the train line's management.

Originally meant to open in December 2018, Crossrail has been plagued by delays and cost overruns, despite management boasting that it would be delivered on time and to budget.

The capital's transport commissioner Mike Brown on Monday said the line was forecast to start operating between September and December next year.

“We’ve looked at a delay until the later stages of 2021, in terms of our business planning assumption,” Brown told a hearing of the London assembly.

“The assumption we’ve made is, I suppose, at the pessimistic end. But it’s the pragmatic end.”

Transport for London (TfL) had said previously that the line would open between 2020 and March 2021. However, Brown told London assembly members on Monday that Crossrail had underestimated the scale of the task remaining, with some stations apparently near completion but then requiring more work to replace systems and wiring.

The delays will cost TfL more than £1.3bn in lost ticket revenue. The overall budget for the line has escalated to £18.25bn, from £14.8bn.

The Elizabeth line, as it will be called officially, is expected to carry more than 200m passengers a year across London, running for 73 miles linking Heathrow and Reading in the west and Abbey Wood and Shenfield in the east, via the West End and Canary Wharf.

Problems have included an electrical transformer explosion, delays to the delivery of new trains and technical problems integrating signalling systems.