My noble friend, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport Baroness Vere of Norbiton has made the following ministerial statement.
In October 2020, the governance of Crossrail transferred over to Transport for London (TfL).
As part of the governance transition, the Crossrail Sponsor Board was stood down and the Mayor of London, who chairs the TfL Board, established a new Special Purpose Committee of the TfL Board, called the Elizabeth Line Committee (ELC). The ELC is chaired by the Deputy Mayor for Transport and provides high-level oversight of the Crossrail project.
The TfL Transport Commissioner is now responsible for the successful delivery of the project and realising the required benefits. The Commissioner chairs the Elizabeth Line Delivery Group (ELDG), which was also established as part of the governance transition, to bring together the key TfL executives responsible for bringing the Elizabeth Line into operation. The TfL Transport Commissioner reports to the ELC.
The transition of governance moves the Crossrail programme closer to TfL as future operator of the Elizabeth Line, allowing it to bring management focus and effort, to 'pull' the Elizabeth Line into operation. These changes were a positive and essential step as we move closer to delivering the full operational railway.
Major construction work on the project is now completed, and trial running began on 10 May 2021.
Given the commencement of trial running and the transfer of governance to TfL, this will be the last annual written ministerial statement on Crossrail.
