New Crossrail boss to be paid £45,000 more than predecessor Simon Wright amid ongoing project troubles

Incoming Crossrail boss Mark Wild is set to earn £415,000 – a £45,000 increase on the earnings of his predecessor, Simon Wright.

Wild, the current managing director of the London Underground, will retain his Transport for London (TfL) salary of £285,000 on top a non-consolidated allowance of £130,000 for his role as Crossrail CEO.

He will resume his role on the Underground once the Elizabeth Line has opened through central London.

Earlier this month TfL announced that Wright, who earns £370,000, would be stepping down "as planned".

News of his departure followed the revelation that the £15.4bn Elizabeth Line, which will stretch from Reading and Heathrow in the wast to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east, will open next autumn instead of this December.

The delay was a blow for cash-strapped TfL, which is already facing a £1bn operational deficit and was banking on the project to shore up its balance sheet.

TfL board papers released today show that spending on the delayed project caused TfL to exceed its capital expenditure by £67.1m.

Meanwhile, TfL’s cash balance has decreased by £724m over the year to date to £1.2bn. Of that total, £195m has been set aside to deliver Crossrail – a 76 per cent drop on the same time the previous year, when £821m was set aside to deliver the project. 

TfL told CityAM this was the last of the original funding and, since the second quarter, an additional £300m had been injected into the project, with £350m of further funding recently agreed with government to be made available.

Earlier today the London Assembly's budget committee, which probed TfL's finances, revealed that the delay would cost TfL nearly £200m next year.

This is on top of the £30m that TfL said it would lose this year in lost fare and advertising revenues.

Gareth Bacon, chairman of the London Assembly's budget committee, which probed TfL’s finances said: "We now have fresh information about what the Crossrail delay will cost TfL – almost £200m in 2019-20 in lost passenger fares and advertising revenue.”

He accused TfL of "maxing out the corporate credit card" just to keep the project afloat until March 2019, when the current financial year ends.

London mayor Sadiq Khan, who chairs TfL, is already facing criticism over his decision to freeze fares, which has left a £640m hole in its finances.

The committee urged TfL to work out what financial toll a second fares freeze would take on its already-squeezed finances. "Freezing fares is a political choice and any mayor is entitled to freeze fares,” Bacon said. “But Londoners need to know what they are committing to first, and that means how much it will cost.

“TfL clearly has some way to go to become a financially sustainable public body…a second-term freeze could be substantially more, and it is simply not sustainable if TfL is to claw its way out of a perilous financial situation.”

The committee also said it had concerns regarding TfL's promise to break even by 2021-22. "This would be a huge achievement," it said.

On becoming mayor in 2016 Khan vowed to reorganise a “flabby TfL”, including by trimming jobs to save £800m a year.

A TfL spokesperson said: “As the committee notes, we continue to grip operating costs with more than £500m per annum in savings so far and raising more revenue through our property, advertising and other commercial assets. This strong track record of cost reduction and broadening revenue streams is enabling us to work towards an operating surplus while dealing with the difficult challenges of the withdrawal of £700m per annum in government operating grant and a subdued economy that has resulted in lower revenues.

“Our five-year business plan to be published by the end of the year will describe how we will manage the financial impact of the delay to the Elizabeth Line while continuing to improve transport for everyone in London."

Chair of the assembly's transport committee Caroline Pidgeon said: "Slowly we are beginning to gain a fuller picture of the dire state of TfL's finances and the huge cost we are facing due to the delayed opening of Crossrail.

"Before being elected Sadiq Khan never stopped describing TfL as flabby. Now a better description of the organisation is a body that is facing financial malnutrition."

In July it was announced that Crossrail was running around £600m over budget. Three months later the government issued a £350m bailout of the delayed project.