Five Crossrail stations in west London delayed by two years to late 2019

Despite assurances that Crossrail was on budget and on time, five stations in west London will be delayed by as much as two years.

Acton, Ealing Broadway, West Ealing, Southall and Hayes and Harlington station upgrades have all been delayed, Network Rail admits.

Platform extension works have already been completed at most stations, with Network Rail estimating all the rail infrastructure will be in place by December, ready for trains to run between Paddington and Heathrow from May 2018.

Very little progress has been made at the West Ealing station site (Image: Dr Ben Sherliker)

As part of Crossrail however, many stations were also due to be upgraded and made fully accessible.

Original plans stated that all the stations should have been complete by the end of 2017 or the start of 2018, but Network Rail has revised the target to be in line with December 2019 opening of the complete Elizabeth Line.

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West Ealing resident Dr Ben Sherliker says he has been asking Crossrail about the station works for three years and has been told there were only "minor delays".

Dr Skerliker told getwestlondon that when he finally decided to look behind the hoardings on Manor Road, he was surprised to see no work had even started.

"The materials are there but there's no progress at all" (Image: Dr Ben Sherliker)

"When you look behind the hoardings all you see is materials" he said.

"Most days I don't even see people at work on the site."

Alongside the renovation of the stations with new entrances and lifts for the disabled to be able to cope with the expected increase in passengers, public realm works need to be completed by the council in order to make junctions safe and provide areas for drop off zones and pedestrian crossings.

Dr Sherliker told us that he had raised concerns with Ealing Council about the works but was told that they could not start until the stations were complete.

Consultations on changes to road layouts and junctions are yet to begin.

Public realm works by the council will now be delayed (Image: Dr Ben Sherliker)

Ben Wheeldon, programme director for Crossrail at Network Rail, said: “The timeline for the introduction of the Elizabeth line is on track.

“Network Rail has already delivered extensive infrastructure upgrades to enable the introduction of the Elizabeth line, and by December this year we will have completed all of the rail infrastructure in Ealing needed to support the testing of Elizabeth line trains in advance of their introduction next May.

“The new station building and accessible pedestrian footbridge will be completed by December 2019, which is when the Crossrail project completes and the full Elizabeth line services are introduced, linking Ealing with central London.

“As a result of Crossrail construction work for the Elizabeth line, passengers and residents in Ealing are already seeing real improvements to their railway and train service.

"The electrification of the line to Maidenhead and a new lengthened bay platform at Hayes & Harlington has facilitated the introduction of GWR electric services to Paddington, providing over 1,000 seats into Paddington at the busiest times.”

A Crossrail train started running from Liverpool Street to Shenfield last week, with more new trains expected to replace the TfL Rail trains on the route.