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News Release from: Chartered Institute of Building [CIOB] | Subject: Crossrail
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial
Team on 19 October 2004
Crossrail Board Given Strengthened
Powers
The Crossrail board has been given strengthened powers ahead of introduction to Parliament of the Bill seeking the powers required to build the £10 billion Crossrail project.
As foreshadowed by the Department for Transport in last year's Crossrail Review, the constitution of the Cross London Rail Links company is being strengthened ahead of introduction to Parliament of the Bill seeking the powers required to build the £10 billion Crossrail project across Greater London The project is now defined as a joint venture between the Department for Transport and Transport for London
This article was originally published on Buildingtalk on 29 Jul 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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The current chairman Sir Christopher Benson is departing from the board and his place will be taken by Adrian Montague who was leader of the Crossrail Review team.
He is giving up the deputy chairmanship of Network Rail but remains chairman of British Energy and of Michael Page International.
Announcing the changes, the Transport Secretary of State Alistair Darling said that the new chairman will have decisive new powers to move the project forward.
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An important change in the chairman's status is provision for a casting vote to provide clarity and give him the final say in the case of disagreements between the two shareholders.
Mr Montague's appointment will be 'pro bono' [unpaid] until the end of March next year, by which time the hybrid Bill is expected to have been presented to Parliament.
The restructuring also provides scope for the appointment of three new directors: Tim Thirwell, a former managing director of Mott Macdonald, Mike Fuhr, major projects director at the Department for Transport, and John Carter, previously a member of Bechtel Group's senior executive management team.
This last appointment is significant in the light of the recent comment by Norman Haste, the Crossrail chief executive, that United States companies will probably take the lead role in managing the £10 billion project.
Mr Carter is a member of the board of directors of Northwest Natural Gas Company and London and Continental Railways, promoters of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link in which Bechtel is playing a key construction management role.
Three existing directors appointed by Transport for London remain in place on the Crossrail board: they are Bob Kiley, London's Transport Commissioner, Jay Walder, TfL's managing director for finance and planning, and Ian Brown, managing director of TfL's Rail Directorate and chairman of the Docklands Light Railway.
On the restructuring itself, Norman Haste said that the appointment of Adrian Montague as chairman of the company showed the importance of the Crossrail project in the Government's plans to bring lasting improvements to transport in the Greater London region.
He added: "We now have a good strong team to go for the final push to get the Bill into Parliament and begin the scrutiny process." The second round of the Crossrail consultation process which commenced in August will come to a close on 2004-10-27.
In addition to the opening of two information exchanges, two-day roadshows were held at 26 points along the proposed route of the railway.
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