We have a few questions about this Evening Standard article on Crossrail
Plus estate agents, Superman leaves London, and hash browns.
Crossrail to be sorted by Christmas. You know, just like World War One was.
Both Count Binface and Shaun Bailey have recently said they would get Crossrail sorted. While Mr Binface wasn’t forthcoming with exact details of his strategy (preferring to focus on his plans to turn The Trocadero “back into a truly top-notch video arcade”), Bailey has claimed it’s a “lack of leadership” that’s caused the delays and to fix it he would use, “funding from the London Infrastructure Bank.”
Now, as far as we know, a leadership vacuum has never been filled by chucking a load of money at it. Also, the London Infrastructure Bank doesn’t exist. It’s another Bailey manifesto pledge that promises to, “raise £10bn in private funding over three years.” And we'd love to meet the business leaders who see Crossrail as a good investment opportunity.
Anyway, all this may be a moot point now, as Crossrail is going to be open by 24 December this year… Apparently.
A very merry Crossrail Christmas?
This news was “revealed” by the Evening Standard (we’re linking to the Yahoo News version just because we don’t want to subject you to the Standard’s barrage of pop up ads), and it’s strange for a few reasons.
To begin with, Crossrail don’t seem to have updated their own site with any of this information yet.
What’s also weird, is that as well as saying that TfL Chief Andy Byford is aiming to get “Crossrail’s central section linking Liverpool Street, Abbey Wood and Paddington,” open by Christmas Eve, the Standard also claims that ‘trial testing’ has begun on the line, with four trains an hour running on it.
In civil engineering language, ‘trial testing’ comes before ‘trial operations’ (i.e. testing with actual passengers) can start, so it’s a pretty big landmark for Crossrail.
A couple of weeks ago a representative from Crossrail called testing, “a key element of the Crossrail programme and a vital moment”. So yeah, a big step that you’d expect them to announce properly.
But it’s also concerning, because in February Jacobs Engineering (the company who were appointed in 2009, “to ensure that Crossrail Ltd will deliver the project on schedule, within budget and to the agreed standard.” Great job, Jacobs!) were practically begging Crossrail to put back trial testing to “ease the intense pressure” on workers.
And just two weeks ago Jacobs produced another report that detailed the concerns “about the growing list of work that is being deferred” on Crossrail so it could start trial testing.
In this report Jacobs worry that there are 4,500 “items of work” that have been “pushed back” so trial running can begin. And, to make things worse, “the outstanding programme of works to complete is increasing in volume”.
So that’s a 4,500 strong (and growing) ‘to do’ list which has to be completed between now and when ‘trial operations’ begin (or ‘human guinea pig time’ as we prefer to call it).
And bear in mind that Andy Byford has already admitted that, “non-essential parts of Crossrail may be ‘parked’ to get the line open. But don’t worry Londoners, those things would definitely be “non safety critical and non public facing.”
So where does this leave us?
Well, we have Crossrail, already four years late and £4bn over budget, who (if you believe the Standard) are starting critical testing despite being criticised by their own project managers for pushing back work and putting their workforce under too much pressure.
And then you have The Standard, who think it’s okay to publish ‘revelations’ about this project without mentioning any sources or other details, and without raising any of these seemingly pretty important questions (you know, like, “Is it safe?”).
We’ll do our best to find out exactly what’s going on, but in the meantime we’d suggest that if you want any Crossrail news then Count Binface might be a better place to start than The Standard.
Update: Foxtons still dicks
A couple of weeks ago we wrote about how Foxtons estate agents were splashing out millions left right and centre (including awarding their CEO a million pound bonus), despite not paying back the £7m they’d received from the taxpayer in furlough loans and business rate relief.
At the company AGM last Thursday, shareholders voted for whether Nic Budden should receive his remuneration package or not. And they voted in favour of it… Just.
40 per cent of shareholders voted against awarding the chief exec his bonus, which is ten per cent shy of getting it chucked out, but enough for the press to call it a “shareholder rebellion”. A vote for the re-appointment of Budden himself as a director only received 82.83 per cent backing, which is a pretty poor show (most of the motions received 95-99%). So there’s hope yet.
And the rest…
Well done to Superdrug, who managed to get a nice press release out of the pubs reopening. Apparently sales in hangover related products jumped up by as much as 122 per cent last week, with Londoners “nursing nearly 200 per cent more sore heads” than the rest of the country.
Talking of sore heads: Pacha is coming back to London. After closing their Victoria venue back in 2014, the Ibiza institution has bought up what was Café de Paris in Leicester Square, with plans to turn it into “a branch of Lío, its cabaret restaurant concept”.
Think that kitchen chair you’ve been working from for the past year was uncomfortable? Wait until you try The Iron Throne. TV’s most famous but least ergonomic chair is coming to Leicester Square this summer (or, at least, a sculpture of it is).
Expect to see more Franco Mancas popping up near you in the next year or so. After reopening 37 of its 52 restaurants the chain has had a “very encouraging” first week of outdoor trading and they’re eyeing a “flurry” of new sites (is that the collective noun for pizza restaurants?).
More good news for people who like pizza (are there people who don’t like pizza?): Mike’s in Peckham has just opened and is serving up “slow-fermented, twice-baked dough festooned with ostentatious toppings and served with cold bottles of Breton cider,” according to Grace Dent’s rave Guardian review.
Plans for the ‘Justice Quarter’ on Fleet Street have been approved. Despite sounding like something out of a Judge Dredd comic, the Justice Quarter is actually a “new civic development” that will include a Crown, Magistrates, County and Civil Courts and a new City of London Police HQ.
We probably don’t need to tell you this, but in Superman IV (The Quest for Peace) there’s a scene that takes place in what is supposed to be a Metropolis/New York subway. Except the film’s budget only stretched to a London underground station (Aldwych if you’re interested, Ian Visits has all the details). Now a fan has ‘remastered’ the scene to make it look less Londony.
In a recent interview with The New Yorker Nigella Lawson talks about how brown foods “have all of their beauty taken away when they’re put behind a camera”. Obviously Nigella has never seen the video for Hash Brown by South East Londoner, Deema (filmed in the gorgeous Marina’s greasy spoon in
Hackney):