Delays in selecting the trains to be used for the Thameslink upgrade “raise questions” about whether the whole project will come in on schedule, a spending watchdog warned today.
A £1.6 billion contract was due to be signed by March 2010, but the deal with German firm Siemens is yet to be finalised. The National Audit Office said this meant the “feasibility” of the multi- billion-pound scheme being ready on time was in doubt.
The Government said it was confident it would be completed in 2018, as planned. But MP Margaret Hodge, who chairs the Commons public accounts committee, said the Department for Transport was “doomed to repeat history” after being criticised for its handling of other schemes, including the “fiasco” of the West Coast Main Line franchise collapse.
The Thameslink route, from Brighton to Bedford via London, is being improved, with longer trains and platforms to cut congestion. The audit office report said: “The delays raise questions about whether the department underestimated the scale of work, time and skills and capacity it required to negotiate a complex PFI deal.”
Rail union chief Bob Crow said the report confirmed the “chaotic mis-management of the Thameslink upgrade right up to Cabinet level”.
But a DfT spokesman said it was confident it will deliver the project “on time and on budget”.
