TfL commissioner should consider role after Crossrail delays, says report

Transport for London’s commissioner Mike Brown should “reflect on whether he is fit to fulfill his role” after delays to the £17bn Crossrail project, according to a London City Hall report released on Tuesday.

The London Assembly's transport committee said Brown “downplayed risks” to Mayor Sadiq Khan, despite warnings from TfL staff and and an independent reviewer.

“The evidence we have seen makes it clear that some officers at Crossrail and TfL attempted to warn about the risks to opening on time,” the report stated.

“It is unacceptable that these risks were being downplayed by TfL Commissioner, Mike Brown. The mayor and the TfL board have to have confidence in the commissioner and his executive team if they are to successfully deliver transport projects in the capital.”

The cross-party committee also found it “difficult to accept” why the independent reviewer, a company called Jacobs, was ignored, adding that the risks of delay it raised "were not sufficiently acted upon”.

“Instead, the positive messaging from the Crossrail executive was listened to,” the committee said.

The committee said evidence from emails between Crossrail Limited and TfL suggested that communications to the mayor were being "managed" by Brown. Instead of communicating risks head on, these were "downplayed in the weekly updates" to Khan.

There was also some doubt cast on Khan 's claim that he first knew of the delay two days before an announcement on August 3.

"Crossrail documents strongly suggest that sponsors (the Department for Transport and TfL) started collaborating on the communications strategy for the delay in mid-August. This, in addition to the known financial challenges, makes it difficult to understand how the mayor claims he was not aware of the imminent risk of delay," it said.

Crossrail, designed to link Reading in the west with Abbey Wood in the east through central London and Heathrow airport, was meant to start services in January but may not open until 2021.

In October it was given a £350m loan to cover additional costs caused by delays.

The delay has caused financial issues for London's transport funding after Khan imposed a freeze on fares in anticipation of services starting on time.

The freeze on single fares is expected to cost TfL £640m over four years, while a government grant worth £700m has been axed.

The committee identified an inadequate governance structure that did not allow enough external scrutiny of the project once the operational date started to slip.

"The autonomy given to Crossrail encouraged an over-reliance on the Crossrail executive’s accounts of progress," it said.

"In addition, the governance model did not give a prominent role to the independent reviewer. Although in theory Jacobs was contracted to help the sponsors scrutinise Crossrail, in practice their advice was largely missed or ignored."