Hi everybody, Mark Wild CEO of Crossrail here and it's a pleasure to give you the latest update from
the program as we strive to get the Elizabeth line open. Big milestone achieved for the program in
recent days we commenced Trial Operations. Trial Operations is the final stage of the program
prior to opening it's the time we conduct the dress rehearsal practice all the operational scenarios
that will occur in the real railway to make sure that we're ready for when this railway opens.
It's been a busy year for us particularly since we transitioned in March to an operational railway
since then we've done three things: firstly we've run hundreds of thousands of timetabled
train miles to shake down the system, find all the bugs and the defects in this immense
complicated digital system, secondly we've brought the signalling software and the tunnel ventilation
system in particular up to the right quality very very close to revenue quality software that's been
one of the major events of the past six months, and finally i'm very pleased to report that we've
completed the complicated routeway integration tests these are the tests that could only be
done once the railway has come together in its completed form and they form the backbone of the
final safety assurance that obviously customers will rely upon when we open the Elizabeth line.
With that work behind us we now look forward to Trial Operations during Trial Operations
there will be 150 planned and unplanned exercises, drills and practices that will throw everything at
our brilliant operational teams to make sure they are match fit for the opening of the Elizabeth line.
The second thing we'll do during this phase is complete some relatively small number but
important tweaks to the signalling software and in particular the tunnel ventilation system, these are
the results of the great amount of testing we've done during the past year and they're essential
to get the right safety and reliability for the Elizabeth line which we all know is paramount
in this drive to the opening. These final tweaks to the tunnel ventilation system are particularly
important because amongst the 150 planned and unplanned Trial Operations exercises we have six
particular exercises where thousands of colleagues help us practice the scenarios that will occur
in real life. We aim to commence them in the new year until then though we are getting on
with the other 144 scenarios, they started at the weekend and so far it's going well.
Of course when we open the Elizabeth line it's very important that we have the right reliability
because this railway has to work not just on day one it has to work on every single day after that
that's why we still have an opening window of the first half of 2022 we aim to narrow that window
as soon as we have confidence in the reliability growth and of course our aspiration is to get as
early as possible in that opening window and we will have much better information after Christmas
once we've been through the upcoming software tweaks and also got a good way into Trial
Operations, thank you for everybody being patient regarding that I think we all appreciate that
the most important thing after 10 years of construction and delivery is that we have
a reliable railway when we open. Elsewhere in the programme I am here today at the completed
Liverpool Street station. Liverpool Street is one of the eight completed and handed over stations
to TfL, there are only two remaining in the central section Canary Wharf and Bond Street. Canary Wharf
is well advanced and we will have that transferred to TfL by the end of the year and at Bond Street
i'm very pleased to report that Bond Street now is ready to support Trial Operations. The team are
doing a great job at Bond Street and they're catching up fast. Of course the Elizabeth line
is more than just this iconic central section we continue to run the railway east and west
with nine car full-length units now operating on the eastern leg from Shenfield to Liverpool Street
the stations in the west are complete at the surface level and in the east we only have
Ilford and Romford to complete and our partner Network Rail are doing well to get those complete
in the early part of next year. I hope people have found this update informative and useful
the Elizabeth line will open in the first half of 2022 and it's our absolute passion to have the
earliest possible opening date within that window rest assured that we know how much London and the
whole country needs this project to complete and the Elizabeth line to open and we will be
trying our very best over the next two or three months to make that a reality thank you very much