Our Ref:          FOI-2418-1819

Thank you for your request received on 12 December 2018 asking for information about Crossrail funding and staffing. I apologise for the delay in my response.
 
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can confirm we hold some of the information you require. You asked:
 
1.    I wondered if you could clarify the basis of the Crossrail costings, and provide details of the estimated expenditures in year-2018 prices, if they do not use a year-2018 basis.
 
As opening of the first section of Crossrail was scheduled for December 2018, TfL and other bodies would have needed to have staff ready to operate the new service.
 
This query can be taken as a request for a breakdown of the estimated cost of Crossrail at 'current prices' (e.g. Q4 2018), identifying property acquisition, rolling stock, depot, and impacts of the postponed opening, etc, following the statement of 10 December 2018 that the funding envelope had been increased to "£17.8 bn". Was the increase in the funding envelope announced on 10 December, given in terms of year-2018 prices, or some other price base.
 
(https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media/press-releases/2018/december/new-financing-agreement-confirmed-for-crossrail-proje )
 
If there is no at-year-2018-prices disaggregated estimate of the estimated cost of Crossrail, could you provide the latest available one which identifies the year-cost base used.
 
The latest independent review of the forecast cost for Crossrail is published on our website:
 
https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/publications-and-reports/crossrail-project-updates
 
In accordance with section 21 of the FOI Act, we are not obliged to supply you with a copy of the requested information as it is already accessible to you elsewhere.
 
2.
1. Could you provide details of the numbers of each type of staff that were engaged to operate Crossrail to meet the December 2018 operating date.
2. As opening of the first phase has now been postponed indefinitely, what alternative arrangements have been made regarding deployment of staff hired to operate the service.
 
Please see the table below showing staff numbers by roles within Infrastructure Maintenance and Operations. Please note that not all of these roles are currently filled:
 
Organizational Unit Job Name Count
Infrastructure Maintenance Apprentice 39
Infrastructure Maintenance Asset Systems Data Analyst 2
Infrastructure Maintenance Discipline Infra Maintenance Engineer 11
Infrastructure Maintenance Head of Crossrail Infrastructure 1
Infrastructure Maintenance Infra Maintenance Delivery Supervisor 3
Infrastructure Maintenance Infrastructure Maintenance Contracts Mgr 3
Infrastructure Maintenance Infrastructure Maintenance Delivery Mgr 1
Infrastructure Maintenance Infrastructure Maintenance Engineer 5
Infrastructure Maintenance Infrastructure Works Planning Manager 1
Infrastructure Maintenance Maintenance Access and Planning Manager 1
Infrastructure Maintenance Maintenance Engineering Manager 2
Infrastructure Maintenance Maintenance Performance Analyst 1
Infrastructure Maintenance Maintenance Planning & Performance Mgr 1
Infrastructure Maintenance Materials and Logistics Coordinator 1
Infrastructure Maintenance Performance and Reliability Manager 1
Infrastructure Maintenance Principal Access Planning Technician 3
Infrastructure Maintenance Principal Maintenance Support Technician 6
Infrastructure Maintenance Principal Maintenance Technician 15
Infrastructure Maintenance Principle Main On Track Plant Technician 2
Infrastructure Maintenance Principle Maintenance Technician 1
Infrastructure Maintenance Railway Plant Engineer 1
Infrastructure Maintenance Real Time Infrastructure Manager (RTIM) 8
Infrastructure Maintenance Secondee Generic 1
Infrastructure Maintenance Senior Maintenance Support Technician 2
Infrastructure Maintenance Senior Maintenance Technician Crossrail 43
Infrastructure Maintenance Senior On Track Plant Technician 7
Infrastructure Maintenance Senior Planning Technician Crossrail 3
Infrastructure Maintenance Technical Compliance Coordinator Crossrail  1
Operations Business Support Manager 1
Operations Change Assurance Manager 1
Operations Competence Compliance and Assurance Mgr 1
Operations Contract Support Coordinator 1
Operations Contractor Generic 1
Operations Control Centre Manager 1
Operations Deputy Director Operations 1
Operations Incident Response Manager 13
Operations Network Assurance Manager 1
Operations Network Operations Manager - Crossrail 1
Operations Network Performance & Strategy Manager 1
Operations Network Skills and Competency Manager 1
Operations Operations Modelling Manager 1
Operations Operations Risk Control Specialist 1
Operations Operations Signalling control Manager 1
Operations Operations Standards Manager 1
Operations Performance Manager Crossrail 1
Operations Quality Assurance Manager 1
Operations Secondee Generic 2
Operations Service & Infrastructure Manager 8
Operations Traffic Manager 1
Operations Traffic Manager, Crossrail 20
Operations Traffic Manager, Elizabeth line 1
Operations Training and Competency Manager 1
Operations Training Programme Specialist 1
Operations Training Specialist 5
Operations Training Systems Specialist 3
Operations Verification Specialist 2
 Total 240
 
We have sought alternative deployment rather than redeployment described below:
 
• Support to the Test and Commissioning teams
• Support to the Dynamic Testing Teams
• Supporting Emergency Exercises, aiding familiarisation with Crossrail systems and sites for emergency services
• Continued familiarisation training Support for interim maintenance of completed assets
• Maintenance of live assets; Great Eastern stations and DOO systems
• Asset verification
• Implementation of Asset Information Systems
 
3.    What cost information is available, regarding the 2014 decision to extend Crossrail to Reading.
 
This query can be taken as a request for the latest available breakdown of the incremental cost of extending Crossrail to Reading (please identify year-cost base used). This might include infrastructure works, and/or additional rolling stock.
 
For example, according to the CROSSRAIL INFORMATION PAPER A1
(http://74f85f59f39b887b696f-ab656259048fb93837ecc0ecbcf0c557.r23.cf3.rackcdn.com/assets/library/document/a/original/a1developmentofthecrossrailroute.pdf )
 
"CLRL considered the feasibility of running Crossrail services from Reading. However, serving this destination would involve significant additional costs and risks, including the need to resignal the Reading station area. Analysis showed that these costs would not be justified by the benefits, as passenger demand on Crossrail services would be low due to the existence of alternative fast rail services to Paddington from Reading."
 
We do not hold this information as the extension to Reading is not an independently itemised cost.
 
This decision to extend the Elizabeth line services to Reading was taken to ensure the best use of capacity on the Great Western (GW) line, to enable Elizabeth line services to operate efficiently alongside existing freight and franchised services on this highly congested part of the GW line and offer greater flexibility for future timetabled services.
 
The service requires one additional train to be added to the Crossrail fleet.
 
Some savings were achieved as a result of the reduction in the investment costs at Maidenhead and Slough to accommodate future Crossrail services. The extension also removed the need to procure additional Electric Multiple Units that would be needed by the GW franchisee to operate the shuttle service between Maidenhead and Reading (which is avoided by extending Crossrail). These savings benefit the Department for Transport, rather than CRL.
 
This extension of Crossrail makes best use of new infrastructure being completed and funded by separate Network Rail projects. This includes the electrification of the Great Western railway west of Maidenhead and the Reading Station project (this was not the case when an extension to Reading was assessed in 2007).
 
There is also a Ministerial Statement on this issue that might be of interest: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/extension-of-crossrail.
 
If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for some reason, please feel free to contact me.
 
Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.

Yours sincerely

Gemma Jacob
Senior FOI Case Officer
FOI Case Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London
[email protected]