‘Bond Street will be jewel in Crossrail’s crown’, outgoing boss claims

Speaking to NCE just days after exiting his role at the helm of Crossrail, Wild said he was “a bag of nerves” when the Elizabeth line opened to the public last month.

However he added that the “proof is in the pudding” and he is “incredibly proud of each and every person” involved in the construction and commissioning of the railway.

One notable absence from the Elizabeth line opening was, of course, Bond Street station. The station has long been identified as a problem point for the project, with Wild admitting as long ago as May 2019 that it would be likely to open at a different time to the rest of the line. It is now expected to open to the public in the autumn.

Wild explained that the problems with Bond Steet go as far back to the start of tunnelling in 2012.

“The main problem at Bond Street was the time it took to clear the site after the TBMs were re-launched from there,” Wild said. “In reality it took 18 months to turn the site [around] to be ready for station construction, which instantly put it behind the pack.”

He added: “Contractors had to wait until the TBMs cleared Farringdon before they could take away all the staging at Bond Street and that was about 18 months.

“Although the tunnelling drive went really well, because we used Bond Street’s footprint to put the gantries and supply chain for the TBMs, it was a full year to 18 months before the gantries could be taken away.”

The pandemic also complicated things with 700 to 800 people on site when the UK went into lockdown. Consequently, due to social distancing guidelines, the troubled station was taken in-house after Crossrail Ltd paid Costain Skanska joint venture a final £19M payment to end its involvement in June 2020.

The problem-hit station has also seen major costs increases. In the last three years the cost of the station has increased by 67% and is now forecast to cost £660M, almost £550M more than its original £111M estimate according to figures released by the National Audit Office in July.

Despite the setbacks, and cost hikes, Wild said that he was “absolutely certain” that Bond Street would be delivered in the autumn along with the full end-to-end integration of the Elizabeth line. In fact, Wild has tipped Bond Street to become the “jewel in Crossrail’s crown” when its doors open to passengers.

“The station is in a really good position, it’s practically done, they finished the installation and they’ll do the integration so I’m absolutely certain they’ll get there in the autumn,” Wild said. “Bond Street has all the lessons learned from the other stations and it’s got the A-team working on there. Plus they don’t have to worry about integrating the railway beneath them.”

He added: “The two ticket halls are absolutely sensational. I bet, by Christmas, Bond Steet will be celebrated as one of the jewels in Crossrail’s crown.”

When asked if he was tempted to stay on to oversee the completion of Bond Street, Wild was adamant that he was not needed.

“I’m not needed for the delivery of one station,” Wild said. “And let’s be honest, they don’t need me hanging around any longer than I’m needed for on that kind of salary. I’m a firm believer that once the job’s done it’s done.”

Wild took over the running of Crossrail in late 2018 after it was announced that the project would miss its December 2018 opening date. When he took on the role, it was expected to be a temporary secondment for up to six months, with a view to Wild returning to his previous position as London Underground managing director.

However, Wild said that by the end of 2018 it became apparent that he wouldn’t be back.

“I think it was Christmas Eve, or perhaps it was the day before, when we sat down as a team and laid out everything that still needed to be done,” Wild said. “It was at that point that we really understood the scale of the task ahead. We all worked through the Christmas period on resequencing the programme of work to do and then delivered our plan in the January.”

Working over Christmas is typical of the way Wild ran Crossrail. In fact, he held an 8am meeting with TfL commissioner Andy Byford every day for 300 days until the line opened.

Understandably he is looking forwards to a break – a walk along Spain’s Camino de Santiago – before he goes back to his roots and takes on a new challenge in the energy sector.

Due to take up the role of chief executive at SGN upon his return, Wild said he’s looking forwards to getting back into the energy sector after two decades in transport infrastructure. “I’m really looking forwards to it, and let’s be honest what bigger challenge is there at the moment than energy.”

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