(11 years, 5 months ago)
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Stephen Hammond)
The Crossrail project has made significant progress over the last year and has now moved firmly into its main construction phase. There are currently around 8,000 people working at over 40 construction sites across London and six tunnel- boring machines are active underground, with the final two due to launch soon. As of 3 July over 14 km of tunnelling had been completed—representing around 33% of the final total. The project is now over 40% complete. Many significant milestones have been reached including two successful tunnel breakthroughs at Canary Wharf station. The project is well on the way to achieving the target of completing the first tunnels by the end of this year.
While we remain focused on the delivery of the infrastructure, work is now also well underway on planning for and delivering an operational railway. In March a change was announced to the funding of the procurement of the rolling stock and depot contract from one which involved a significant element of private finance to one that is fully publicly funded. This step was taken to ensure that the trains are ready for the opening of the new railway. The overall schedule for the award of the Crossrail rolling stock and depot contract remains unchanged, with a targeted contract award date of mid-2014.
Transport for London (TfL) will be responsible for the operation of the Crossrail services and is leading the procurement of the Crossrail train operator (CTOC). The procurement process has already begun with the pre-qualified bidders having been announced in June. The next step will be the publication of the invitation to tender in September this year, with the aim of awarding the concession in September 2014 and the start of operations between Liverpool Street (high-level) and Shenfield in May 2015. The Department is also working closely with TfL to ensure that the requirements of CTOC are reflected in the new or extended franchises which will operate on the Great Western and Greater Anglia routes.
Crossrail services via the central tunnel are on schedule to be operational from December 2018 with full services operating from late 2019.
The Crossrail board continues to forecast that the costs of constructing Crossrail will be within the agreed funding limits. We expect Crossrail to cost no more than £14.5 billion, excluding rolling stock costs.
All major contracts (excluding the rolling stock and depot contract) have now been awarded. To date, Crossrail Ltd has awarded direct contracts with a value of approximately £6 billion. UK businesses have benefited from the award of 97% of the contracts in the Crossrail supply chain, with 58% of contracts awarded to small and medium-sized enterprises and 43% awarded beyond London and the south-east.
During the passage of the Crossrail Bill through Parliament, a commitment was given that a statement would be published at least every 12 months until the completion of the construction of Crossrail, setting out information about the project’s funding and finances.
In line with this commitment, this statement comes within 12 months of the last one which was published on 10 July 2012, Official Report, column 22WS. The relevant information is as follows:
Total funding amounts provided to Crossrail Ltd by the Department for Transport and Transport for London in relation to the construction of Crossrail to the end of the period (22 July 2008 to 29 May 2013) | £4,258,541,4821 |
Expenditure incurred (including committed land and property spend not yet paid out) by Crossrail Ltd in relation to the construction of Crossrail in the period (30 May 2012 to 29 May 2013) (excluding recoverable VAT on land and property purchases) | £1,506,347,000 |
Total expenditure incurred (including committed land and property spend not yet paid out) by Crossrail Ltd in relation to the construction of Crossrail to the end of the period (22 July 2008 to 29 May 2013) (excluding recoverable VAT on land and property purchases) | £4,434,895,000 |
The amounts realised by the disposal of any land or property for the purposes of the construction of Crossrail by the Secretary of State, TfL or Crossrail Ltd in the period covered by the statement | Nil |
1 The total funding amounts provided to CRL by the Department of Transport and Transport for London refers to the expenditure drawn down from the sponsor funding account in the period 22 July 2008 and 29 May 2013. Included within the amount of £4,258,541,482 that was drawn down from the sponsor funding account is £278,023,076 of interim funding that has been provided to Network Rail to finance their delivery of the on-network works between 1 April 2009 and 29 May 2013. |
The numbers above are drawn from Crossrail Ltd’s books of account and have been prepared on a consistent basis with the update provided last year. The figure for expenditure incurred includes moneys already paid out in relevant periods, including committed land and property expenditure where this has not yet been paid. It does not include future expenditure on construction contracts that have been awarded.
I also wish to inform the House that we have completed a review of Crossrail Act 2008 as required by the process detailed in the document “Post Legislative Assessment—The Government’s approach”. This assessment, five years after the Bill received Royal Assent, evaluates how fit for purpose the Crossrail Act has proved to be to this point in the construction process. I will publish the review before the House rises for summer recess.