Bidders for the role of Crossrail’s project delivery partner have been told that they will have to wait to find out who will take the £400m job

Following last week’s appointment of the Transcend Team as programme partner, the candidates received an email from Doug Oakervee, Crossrail’s chairman, which delayed the decision for at least a week.

However, a Crossrail spokesperson refused to deny reports that firms will have to wait even longer.

The appointment was to be made at the same time as the programme partner, and the reason for the delay is unclear.

The bidders are Bechtel, Legacy 3 (Parsons Brinckerhoff, Balfour Beatty and Davis Langdon), Laing O’Rourke and Atkins, and NNN and Capita Symonds.