Chief executive expecting station to be ready by September

Crossrail鈥檚 Bond Street station will open around three months after the rest of the project鈥檚 拢18.6bn key central section, the scheme鈥檚 boss has told 黑洞社区.

The route between Paddington and Liverpool Street is finally due to open this June, more than three years after its original opening date of December 2018.

But Bond Street won鈥檛 be ready to welcome customers until late summer.

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Source: Jordan Marshall

Crossrail's Bond Street station eastbound platform in March 2022. Services are expected to beginning stopping here in September

Chief executive Mark Wild said: 鈥淚t is three months behind, so hopefully [it will open] around August-September time.鈥�

He added the station was facing a much worse scenario when he arrived in late 2018, admitting: 鈥淎t one stage, it was 18 months behind the rest of the central section.鈥�

Wild said construction and installation work at the station was now complete with the remaining work centring on carrying out critical testing.

When Bond Street does open it will have the second longest escalator of any underground station in the capital 鈥� only eclipsed by the one at Angel.

Wild also confirmed the overall project was still facing a funding shortfall, admitting the anticipated final cost is currently 拢175m above the 拢825m it received in the latest government bailout.

He said: 鈥淲e won't be out of the money until the autumn and there are still opportunities to reduce costs. Then we will have to negotiate.鈥�

Under this timescale, the current funding agreement would not be exceeded until after the central section opens.

Wild added that the expected cost was still well within the 拢1.1bn the project had requested from government before eventually being handed 拢825m in 2020.

Meanwhile, Andy Lord, chief operating officer at TfL, which will be responsible for operating the railway, said it was looking at opening the Paddington Crossrail station early to provide step-free access to the Bakerloo line.

There is a connection, which had originally been designed for engineering and staff access, between the Elizabeth Line platforms to the Bakerloo line.

鈥淥nce we've got the main station approved [we] we may actually open this part to customers before the main railway,鈥� Lord added.

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