Crossrail delayed for another year and will cost a further £650million

LONDON’S new east-west railway is to be delayed for another year and cost a further £650million.

Mark Wild, chief executive of Crossrail Ltd, said services would now begin “as soon as practically possible in 2021”.

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He said the cost would hit £18.25billion — compared to the £15.9billion budget set in 2007.

The new total will be between £400million and £650million more than the revised estimate last December, when the line was originally meant to have opened.

In April bosses were saying it could run from October 2020.

Mr Wild said he wants to “ensure reliability of the railway from day one”.

He added: “There are no shortcuts to delivering this hugely complex railway.”

Crossrail Ltd said “major tasks” needed to be completed before the route — to be called the Elizabeth Line — can open.

They include building and testing signalling software and station systems, finishing installing tunnel equipment, testing communications and running thousands of miles of train trials.

Caroline Pidgeon, head of the London Assembly’s Transport Committee, said: “The further delays and increasing costs are appalling news for Londoners.

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“The delay creates huge issues for businesses that have made investment decisions based on its original opening date.”

The line will eventually link Reading and Heathrow in the west with Shenfield in Essex.

The central section will open first with trains running between Paddington and Abbey Wood, South East London.

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