Chairman of Britain's Crossrail and HS2 project resigns
Reuters
Published Dec 05, 2018 12:33PM ET
Chairman of Britain's Crossrail and HS2 project resigns
LONDON (Reuters) - The chairman of Britain's delayed 15-billion-pound London Crossrail project, Terry Morgan, has resigned, the Department of Transport said on Wednesday.
Morgan, 70, also stepped down as Chairman of the High Speed 2 (HS2) rail project connecting London to Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds.
Crossrail is one of Europe's biggest infrastructure projects and is running almost 600 million pounds over budget with extra funding required to complete the work.
In August, it was announced that its planned opening this month had been delayed to Autumn 2019 because it requires more time for testing and for final work to be completed.
When fully open, the Elizabeth line, as it is officially known, will connect destinations like Heathrow Airport in west London to areas such as the Canary Wharf financial district in the east.
Morgan, who had been in the Crossrail job for almost a decade, had predicted earlier this month he would be ousted after the delay.
He told the BBC: "I can only assume that because HS2 is such a critically important program and with the sense of disappointment around the performance of Crossrail, that it was considered to be too risky for a program like HS2 to continue (with me) as chairman."
Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said: "Sir Terry has been an integral part of Crossrail for almost a decade and I would like to thank him for his dedication and the expertise he brought to the role. I am also grateful to him for his work as chair of HS2 Ltd.
Morgan will be replaced at HS2 by Allan Cook, a former chairman of engineers WS Atkins Plc and a director of U.S. banker J.F. Lehman and Co. The Crossrail chairmanship will be announced later.
London mayor Sadiq Khan said he had been concerned about the effectiveness of Crossrail's governance.
He added in a statement: "Under new leadership, Crossrail must provide the joint sponsors and Londoners with the confidence that it has robust mechanisms in place to deliver a revised schedule, operating with a renewed sense of urgency and transparency across all parts of the project."
Get The News You Want
Written By: Reuters
Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.