Crossrail 'could be delayed until 2021'

[Leithen]

Does anyone know what the story behind the latest Crossrail delay is?

Surely the hardest part of the project ought to have been building it, not figuring out how to get a signalling system working?

[Leithen]

12TS said:

GTO-3R said:

Leithen said:

Does anyone know what the story behind the latest Crossrail delay is?

Surely the hardest part of the project ought to have been building it, not figuring out how to get a signalling system working?

As a Signalling Engineer, trust me, it's a lot more difficult than you might think.

There are three signalling systems to get working, so even more fun.

I can understand that it would be critical to fully test the signalling systems, and make sure that hardware and software work with proper redundancy etc. However, surely it's an established technology/system? Or is there something new that has been introduced?

[Leithen]

tim0409 said:

People do use the Edinburgh Trams but for me that still doesn't justify the shambolic way in which the project was handled, or the £300 million that Edinburgh council tax payers will have to repay over the next 30 years (in addition to the £550 million spent by central government). Instead of a tram network costing £350 million, we ended up with 1/3rd of the original scheme for three times the cost.....! The single route they ended up with made the least sense in terms of future growth, combined with the fact that two train lines already run either side of Edinburgh Airport and could easily have been adapted to serve the airport.

I agree that given the massive positive impact of Crossrail, a few extra months will soon be forgotten.

AIUI the enquiry into the tram fiasco is still to report.

However, having experienced the construction on our doorstep, it appeared that the work required to discover, identify and reroute the services under the tram route was massively underestimated.

None of which came as a great surprise, given the entirely haphazard systems that have been and continue to be in place for utility street work.

[Leithen]

valiant said:

Crossrail (the central core) is being fitted with CBTC (Communication Based Train Control) signalling. ......

Thank you valiant, fascinating stuff.

[Leithen]

Terminator X said:

When the labour force are being paid buttons that is possible! We had 10k people on site at T5 back in the day.

TX.

Any stories about the T5 baggage snafus?