Crossrail Project Management

This article provides an overview of the Crossrail project, one of the largest railway infrastructure projects in Europe. It discusses the project scope, budget assumptions, constraints, stakeholder involvement, project organization structure, control mechanism, reporting framework, and project planning milestones.

CROSSRAIL PROJECT
MANAGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Briefly introduce your project.........................................................................................................1
Project Scope...................................................................................................................................1
Budget Assumptions........................................................................................................................2
Assumptions....................................................................................................................................2
Constraints.......................................................................................................................................3
Stakeholder and their involvement..................................................................................................3
Project organisation structure and role and responsibilities............................................................6
Project control mechanism..............................................................................................................6
Reporting framework.......................................................................................................................7
Project planning with milestones.....................................................................................................7
REFERENCE..................................................................................................................................9

Briefly introduce your project
Cross rail is one of the biggest railway infrastructure projects in Europe as well as it is
one of the largest investments undertaken in the UK. This project is delivering the Elizabeth line
and once it is opened then it will be known as Elizabeth line. Construction of this new rail
project started in 2009 (Demirkesen and Ozorhon, 2017). Till now in this project approximately
15, 000 men and women have worked on this project ad more than 120 million working hours
have been completed. Like every other project this Crossrail project has also faced various kinds
of issues, challenges and complexities. One of those challenge was financial challenge. On 24th
July 2018 it was announced that overall budget of this project was being increased by £590
million, to £15.4 billion including Crossrail Limited and Network Rail funding’s. But on 10th
dec, 208 it was again announced that its new budget would be increased up to £2.15 billion, in
response to increasing costs only for Crossrail limited and did not include cost of train, deports
etc. Completion of this project as a challenge due to which this project had been delayed a lot.
This project is now in its complete complex final stage and they are focusing upon
commissioning of the railway in spring 2021 (Silvius, 2017). It is a transformation program for
London transport in which: new trains will carry 200 million passengers a year, reduce journey
time, increase capital rail capacity by at least 10 percent. It will create up to 14,000 construction
jobs per year and 1000 jobs for operation and maintenance.
Project Scope
As per the scope of this cross-rail project, scope of which whole project has been
explained below:
 24 trains per hour will be providing its service in peak between Paddington and Whitechapel.
But as per the recent review there might be issues or problem in this level of service.
 For the benchmark scheme there are six rain interfaces with current existing Northern
railway system with both orbital and radical routs in whole London area.
 Recent review of CLRL identified various other factors relating to operability of Crossrail.
There was a probable need for an additional turnback facility at Old Oak Common as the
proposed one at Westbourne Park might be insufficient (Ika and et.al., 2020).
 Some of the difficulties in the project might be addressed by planned improvements to
Network Rail as it is already set upon it network plan (Ting, Gilson and Black, 2021).
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 In Paddington to Shenfield and Abbey Wood -_ Approximately 22/23 trains per hours. This
can be improved to 23/24 trains in the event that Network Rail and the Train Operating
Companies improved punctuality performance on the Shenfield line and Liverpool Street 6%
on that currently achieved.
 Trains from Heathrow to Shenfield, Paddington, and Abbey Wood will be 21/22 trains per
hour. This can be improved to additional one more train per hour because of improved
performance on the Great Western lines by 15% on that currently achieved (Müller, Drouin
and Sankaran, 2019).
 In order to obtain 24 trains per fours from central tunnel it would be important to have both
Network Rail and the Train Operating Companies should focus upon improving their
punctuality delivery at relevant interfaces. Cross rail services should be segregated from
other services of Network Rail and the Train Operating Companies.
Budget Assumptions
Budge assumptions is one of the major part of a project. For a project as large as
Crossrail it is extremely important to evaluate and analyse accurate assumed budget in which this
whole project will be completed. Budget of this cross-rail project has increased from time to time
due to various reasons (Ting, Gilson and Black, 2021). From time to time this budget
assumptions have changed. In first year when this project started overall budget of £14.8 was
agreed. In December 2018 this funding envelope increased to £17.6 billion (Milillo and et. al.,
2018). On August, 2020 additional cost of completing this project was asked that was above
£1.1 billion of financial package financial package agreed in December 2018 and lastly in
December, 2020 financial deal with government worth £825 million was agreed to deliver this
project.
Assumptions
As per certain assumptions it was identified that operation of this Crossrail project of
Elizabeth project should pay back its capital carbon dioxide in 9–13 years (Ting, Gilson and
Black, 2021). It was an assumption that this project will be reducing as a reasonable practise. Not
only this, it would promote energy efficient operation in order to reduce payback time period.
CLRL has started this project on the basis of vigorous research, data collection and various
assumptions. They assumed that this project will be carrying 200 million passengers a year. It
will create up to 14,000 construction jobs per year and 1000 jobs for operation and maintenance
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(Williams and Black, eds., 2018). Burt this assumption is completely debatable. On the basis of
some other assumption of CLRL it has been identified that: Journey time elasticity helps in
understanding journey demand generated by this Crossrail project. This elasticity can increase
benefit cost ration from 1.99:1 to 2.1:1. But CLRL made no assumptions about possible
availability of funding from the European Union. It was extremely difficult to identify ways in
which this project qualified Trans- European Network funding.
Constraints
This cross rail project had physical constraints of Crossrail’s sites prevented the use of
renewable energy. In fact one of its station named Whitechapel station has only been flagged as
the one who’s site is capable of supporting solar panels for the station’s future energy
requirements (Ting, Gilson and Black, 2021). It also had constraints on its total budget as it had
already exceed by £600 m of its decided budget. But after some joined-up efforts it budget was
increased enough so that it can come into commencement by Spring 2021.
Stakeholder and their involvement
Every project has some stakeholders who are important proceed the project and they are
responsible to complete the whole project in the given timeline (Demirkesen and Ozorhon.,
2017). it can include all the people who are working within the Crossrail project London For the
single objectives. here are some of the stakeholders of Crossrail project.
Stakeholders responsibility interest power
project manager Project manager
will be
responsible to
create outline of
the project and
they will be
responsible to
start the project
and finish
project by
making the
objectives. they
High High
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will give
guidance and top
most stakeholder
of the Crossrail
project.
Engineers Engineers will
be responsible to
create
underground
tunnel and
people who will
work under them
will construct
the railway line
for the Crossrail
project. They
will construct
railway line
from the East to
West London.
High Low
local
government
Local
government will
provide funds to
the railways for
their ongoing
project and they
will responsible
to take report
from the railway
Department of
London for the
Low High
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process an
ongoing
activities. they
will not take that
much interest
but they will
take report of all
the activities.
investors Other investors
will invest in the
railway cross
line project. the
money invested
by them will be
used to construct
the railway lines
and in future
they will get the
revenue an
interest for their
investment.
High Low
Other railway
bodies
Railway bodies
will be
responsible too
maintain and
give role to the
people who are
working within
the railways in
London. They
will be
High High
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authorised to
take report about
the process and
they will provide
it to the
government
directly.
Project organisation structure and role and responsibilities
There will be a hide cycle structure that will be used within the Crossrail project that will enable
the communication from the lower level employees to the upper level employees. it means that
flow of communication will be increased that is necessary for making the project successful
(Silvius., 2017)l. Each and every member who are involved within the Crossrail project will able
to connect with each other an if they want to send any information to the lower to top then they
can send through proper chain of command. similarly if top management want to send any
related information for the project success than they will send through the each and every
mediator and the mediator will communicate the message directly to the lower level people who
are connected in the project. The lower level engineers or workers will send information to the
senior engineers, then seniors engineer will send information to the railway Department and
railway Department will directly send to the government or the other top management team. after
getting the information they will try to solve the issues lower level team are facing or if it is
about project success or process then this information can be helpful for the top management to
making these strategies (Ika and et.al., 2020).
Project control mechanism
There will be different different project control strategies will be used and one of the effective
strategy that will be used by project manager will be key performance indicator. it is the
indicator that helps too identify the process and progress of the project. some of the indicators
will be set and on the basis of indicators the project success will be measured by the project
manager. this information will be directly sent to the top management team where they will give
further directions.
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Reporting framework
The lower level engineers or workers will send information to the senior engineers, then seniors
engineer will send information to the railway Department and railway Department will directly
send to the government or the other top management team. after getting the information they will
try to solve the issues lower level team are facing or if it is about project success or process then
this information can be helpful for the top management to making these strategies.
Project planning with milestones
Project planning and milestone is all about project life cycle that cover from the initial activities
to the and activities of the project outcomes.
Initiation
The project initiation is the process where project manager of the Crossrail well identify the
project goals and objectives another initial activities will be covered within the plan. Project
manager will try to identify the objective of making the Crossrail an important of it (Müller,
Drouin, and Sankaran., 2019).
Planning
In the planning phase Project manager will outline the activities that will be done and they will
also decide that what designs will be covered Hindi days and process. Roles will be assigned by
the project manager and each and every stakeholder will be aware of their roll and what they
have to do within the Crossrail project.
Executing
And the execution based which is also known as the implementation in which project plan design
in the previous space of the project activities cycle is put into the action. the intent of the
execution pace of the project activity cycles is bring about the project ask expected results.
Monitoring and controlling
controlling and monitoring of the whole project there will be some strategies used by project
manager to control and measure the project activities. Feedback and key performance indicator
and other benchmark tools will be used to identify the progress and process.
Closure
Closure is the last stage of project management There all these activities are already done and
project manager measure if the project objectives are meet or not. it is the place where award
functions and other ceremonies take place and celebration is done in the end. will be covered
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Hindi days and process. Roles will be assigned by the project manager and each and every
stakeholder will be aware of their roll and what they have to do within the Crossrail project.
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REFERENCE
Books and Journals
Demirkesen, S. and Ozorhon, B., 2017. Impact of integration management on construction
project management performance. International Journal of Project Management. 35(8).
pp.1639-1654.
Ika, L.A., and et.al., 2020. Cross-learning between project management and international
development: Analysis and research agenda. International Journal of Project
Management. 38(8). pp.548-558.
Milillo, P., and et. al., 2018. Multi-temporal InSAR structural damage assessment: The London
crossrail case study. Remote Sensing, 10(2), p.287.
Müller, R., Drouin, N. and Sankaran, S., 2019. Modeling organizational project
management. Project Management JJournal.50(4). pp.499-513.
Silvius, G., 2017. Sustainability as a new school of thought in project management. Journal of
Cleaner Production,.66. pp.1479-1493.
Ting, C., Gilson, B. and Black, M., 2021. Developing the 3D geological model for Crossrail 2,
London, UK. Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology, 54(2).
Williams, R.V. and Black, M. eds., 2018. Crossrail Project: Infrastructure design and
construction. ICE Publishing.
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