GREATER FOCUS ON PROJECT OUTCOMES IS ESSENTIAL

摘要

Nothing gives me more delight than to be able to run a story about Crossrail trial running getting underway on this month's cover. I have been following the project as a journalist since it was first mooted in its current form in the early 2000s and I can't wait to have my first ride on it. Nonetheless, as outlined on page 14 of this issue, the project still has major challenges to overcome before I can be sure that I will be making that trip before this time next year. Public perception of the challenges faced in bringing Crossrail into operation and the impression created by other delayed and over budget projects, as well as the Grenfell disaster, were spelled out in a recent series of news stories in The Times. They do not make pleasant reading for those working in the construction sector but I do not think the comments were unjustified from a societal point of view. No one working in the built environment can be proud of the fallout from the Grenfell Inquiry and, while the civil engineering aspects of Crossrail may have gone well, the integration of the railway with the wider network has been complex.