Crossrail – Khan v Morgan

Wednesday could be D-Day!

With the Christmas holiday break looming, a coming-together between Crossrail’s former chairman Sir Terry Morgan and London mayor Sadiq Khan turned out to be a damp squib. Claiming other commitments, Sir Terry was a ‘no show’ on Friday 21 December at London’s City Hall where he was due to appear before the Greater London Authority Transport Committee.  

Mayor Khan and transport commissioner Mike Brown were interrogated by the committee on the delayed introduction of the Elizabeth Line, with the committee's Liberal Democrat chair, Caroline Pidgeon, particularly aggressive.

The mayor repeatedly dismissed suggestions he knew about the delayed opening of the capital's new Crossrail project a month before the announcement was made public.

"It begs the question if we were told at the end of July as Sir Terry claims, why nothing happened from either ourselves, the DfT (Department for Transport), or even Sir Terry – he went on holiday.

"It's not believable that we were notified that December 2018 was not a date that could be met. All I can think is that he (Sir Terry) has misremembered."

Sir Terry will now appear before the committee next Wednesday, 9 January, together with London deputy mayor Heidi Alexander; TfL and DfT nominee for role of chair of Crossrail Tony Meggs; Crossrail CEO Mark Wild, and London Underground director of strategy and network development David Hughes.

The possibility of a Silvertown for London City Airport station review was not raised.  

www.london.gov.uk

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Catherine Chetwynd, London

The ability to use Crossrail was the deciding factor in London's winning banking conference Sibos, which takes place at Excel this year, bringing between 9,000 and 10,000 people to London,180 companies organise spin-off events in the city and Sibos brings approx 50m euros of business to the city. Crossrail's delay is a disaster on several levels