"I'll never get to see the opening of CrossRail," joked my father three years ago. Sadly, he was right. Like Berlin's Brandenburg airport, London's CrossRail project is a monumental failure in terms of its delivery. Eleven years have passed since work began on it. Five years ago, I wrote about the underground station next to the office where I used to work in London. I posited that CrossRail would be functioning in "three to four years". How wrong I was. It now looks like 2023. So I was out by five years.
Today was meant to see the opening of the second modernised line between Czachówek Południowy and Warka stations, with the new 'down' platforms becoming operational and an end to single-line working on this stretch of the Warsaw-Radom line.
Just after nine am this morning I was standing on the brand new platform at Chynów station, with a ticket in my hand for Warka. Looking north towards Sułkowice, I could see the lights of the southbound train on the new line. Great! At the same time, a northbound train departed from Chynów heading for Warsaw. The two trains passed each other halfway between Sułkowice and Chynów - something that hadn't happened for nearly two years.
But just before my train reached Chynów, it changed track and arrived at the other platform.
- No announcement from the station loudspeaker.
- No signs telling passengers that the new platform was still not operational.
- No tapes or barriers stopping passengers from walking onto a platform that wasn't served by trains.
No time for me to run around to the other platform, with the underground platform still under construction. The train to Warka leaves without me. Home, then, for a second breakfast.
I went back in the evening to see what's going on. Same thing. Below: southbound train approaching Chynów turns off the new 'down' line onto the 'up' line modernised last year. Single-line working continues.
Below: looking at Chynów station from the makeshift pedestrian crossing north of the platforms. The southbound train has stopped on the 'up' platform, which by now should have been reserved for northbound trains. As of today, it should have stopped at the 'down' platform to the right. In the distance, the lights of a northbound train, which will be rerouted as in the past year into the passing-loop platform to the left.
Let's stop spitting at the other tribe
Progress on the Działka
This time six years ago:
Changes to Poland's traffic regulations
This time nine years ago:
Teasers in the Polish-English linguistic space
This time ten years ago:
Summer slipping away
This time 11 years ago:
To the airport by bike
This time 12 years ago:
My translation of Tuwim's Lokomotywa
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2 comments:
Crossrail is another example of the impact of complexity, which is (in this context) a measure of 'delivery environment'. Unlike complication (which relates to size and technology), complexity pertains to people, their requirements and priorities, and their relationships. I could write at length: it's a subject that I spent a year investigating.
And it's an example of government not following the available wisdom - in some cases published by their very own civil servants. The UK government's Infrastructure & Projects Authority has issued the excellent Project Initiation Handbook which incorporates the Delivery Environment Complexity Assessment (DECA) tool - TfL and others use the handbook.
But, instead, there is a desire to perform 'heroic' megaprojects, which increases the risk of cost escalation and delay. As we have seen on Crossrail, where excessive optimism has been a contributory factor. This 'heroism' is totally misplaced when one looks at smaller, complicated but not unduly complex projects which have not generally hit the news for the wrong reasons (such as rolling electrification in Scotland, Thameslink, Birmingham Gateway, and so on - the UK can do a good job, and actually is at the cutting edge of thinking about efficient delivery).
I seem to remember that you work for the British Council so, if you'd like to know more, please leave a reply including how I can contact you offline. Actually things like the Project Initiation Handbook ought to be a prime UK intellectual export.
@WHP
Complexity vs.complication - very good point.
I work for the British Polish Chamber of Commerce, a business organisation, rather than for the British Council. I'd guess the British Council should be doing stuff like promoting UK best practice in areas such as infrastructure delivery. I have been to events at the British Embassy in Warsaw at which speakers from Network Rail or the Highways Agency spoke about best practice in public procurement; project management not so much.
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