Crossrail has become a saga – one that fascinates and appals us in equal measure. Last week’s National Audit Office report laid out all the failures – and there are a lot – in black and white, and the costs of these failures are eye-watering: £2.5bn was heaped on to contracts between 2013 and 2018 because of design and contract changes.

A transport service – running over two years’ late – that originally had a price tag of £14.8bn is now clocking in at £17.6bn.

This is public money, so understandably the mainstream media now smells blood: the follow-up stories this week zoomed in on Crossrail hiring nearly 500 train drivers for services that will not be ready for another two years. The annual cost of employing these drivers is apparently £25m. Read a bit beyond the headlines and most of the drivers are either being put to good use testing systems or running services on sections of the line that are operating in outer London.

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