By Colin Marrs

08 Feb 2016

Crossrail, the capital’s new east-west rail link, is on track to open on time and on budget. As well as being a boon for commuters, it could also improve the UK’s reputation for delivering major infrastructure projects. Colin Marrs digs around for some lessons


In less than three years, passengers will pour through ticket barriers onto the platforms of a major new London rail line. The Crossrail project is one of the most ambitious transport construction projects ever undertaken in the UK, creating 21km of twin tunnels beneath the capital’s streets. When fully operational in 2019, the line will connect Reading and Heathrow in the west to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east.

Despite spending decades in gestation, delivery of the project has been remarkably smooth, with the government claiming the project will be delivered on time and on budget. Experts seem to agree that the governance structures put in place for the Crossrail project have helped put the UK back on track when it comes to delivering major transport infrastructure. So what’s the secret?

It can be argued that the Crossrail concept is more than a century old. During the 1880s, parliament gave permission for the Regents Canal & Railway Company to create a surface line between Paddington and east London’s busy docks. The scheme was aborted, but a similar idea resurfaced in 1944 as one of the less well remembered – and unfulfilled – parts of the famous Abercrombie Plan for the capital.

“Strong and informed sponsorship within government is important”

Overall, though, most consider the project to have been an example of good project management, with Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, concluding in 2014: “The sponsors and Crossrail Ltd have so far done well to protect taxpayers’ interests, by taking early action to stop costs escalating and, during construction, tightly managing the programme.” The Major Projects Authority 2015 annual report gave the project an amber/green rating, which is about as good as it gets for a project on which delivery is not yet complete.

So could the lesson be that delivering a successful project requires keeping civil servants well away from delivery? Not quite, says Stewart. “The competencies required within Whitehall are not to run the day-to-day commercial procurements and project management, it is true. But there is a lot of skill in being a good client. You are monitoring the performance of the delivery body and not relying on their assurances that everything is fine. You are also managing the politics and policy environment.”

Departmental officials are a key part of a team in which each partner has played its appropriate role, says Perring. “Strong and informed sponsorship within government is important, as is the ability to let the delivery company get on with delivery while keeping a close eye on what is going on. This requires expertise and experience on the part of the key players on the team and enables an appropriate level of challenge, and mutual respect between the parties,” she says.

She also emphasises the importance of “having a well-developed and well-defined project in advance of approval being given to proceed with the project”. It is a view that Crossrail’s early supporter Steven Norris shares. “Rule one of good project management is to resist variations. You have to do a lot of work to make sure it is properly defined from the start. On that basis you would have to say they have done well.”

The evolution of governance structures which have developed through the Olympics and Crossrail projects mean that the UK is no longer a laughing stock when it comes to delivering major construction projects, says Stewart. “I think this new approach we have developed in professionalising delivery and separating it from the politicians is improving the impact of these projects,” he says. “The UK now compares pretty favourably with its international competitors. You couldn’t have said that 10 or 15 years ago.”

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