12. Case 8: London Cross Rail Project

In the nineteenth century, the Regents Canal company highlighted the important role railways will play in London in future. Crossrail Ltd. was established in the year 2001 to build the new railway line known as the Elizabeth line through central London. The initial budget for the project was set at £154 million. Crossrail Limited is the wholly owned subsidiary of Transport for London (TfL). The company was established as a 50/50 joint venture company between Transport for London and the Department for London. The Crossrail project is currently Europe’s largest infrastructure project in Europe. The new Elizabeth line will be fully integrated with London’s existing transport and will be operated by Transport for London. The Elizabeth line will increase central London capacity by 10% and reduce congestion at many London underground stations. In a span of 3 years, eight giant tunnel boring machines had burrowed below the streets of London to construct the 42 km new rail tunnels. Over 200,000 tunnel segments were used to line the 42 km of tunnels. The final estimated amount of funding for the project amounted to £17.8 billion. The principal risks to which the project is exposed include safety programme delivery, commercial, organizational, stakeholder and financial risks.