ES News email The latest headlines in your inbox twice a day Monday - Friday plus breaking news updates Enter your email address Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive lunchtime headlines Monday - Friday plus breaking news alerts, by email Update newsletter preferences

Transport chiefs have revealed the crisis-hit Crossrail line has no chance of opening this year — and they have no idea when it will.

The project’s new chief executive told Mayor Sadiq Khan he faced a “huge” task and hopes of the £17.6 billion line being ready this autumn were non-existent.

“I can’t see how this job can be delivered in calendar year 2019,” Mark Wild said. “I don’t actually know when it will be delivered after that.”

It came as one figure close to the project warned it could be “two or three years” before services are running fully through the central section between Abbey Wood and Paddington.

Crossrail had been due to be opened by the Queen on December 9 last year. But the date was abandoned last August when major problems with signalling and incomplete stations were made public — and a provisional new date of this autumn was announced.

The Transport for London board was told yesterday that the autumn opening was no longer feasible and the full scale of the problems remained unknown. The new Crossrail chairman Tony Meggs added: “We still don’t have absolute clarity with exactly where we are. We still don’t know what we need to know.”

Caroline Pidgeon, the Liberal Democrat leading a London Assembly investigation into Crossrail, said today: “This candid admission of just how seriously Crossrail will be delayed raises even further issues as to how the line was held for so long that it would open in December 2018.”

Mr Wild said an “orange army” of 6,000 to 7,000 contractors was costing £30 million a week and morale had dropped “off the cliff”.

Costs have soared £2.8 billion over the £14.8 billion budget, with London firms having to pay more in business rates and TfL losing £600 million in fares.

Mr Wild said there had been a “massive step forward” when the first train entered the central tunnels to start testing on January 14.

But there were “many, many weeks” of trials to come, and it will take until the summer before trains can be fully tested. He said he was “less certain” how long it would take to complete the nine “huge” new stations, with Paddington, Whitechapel and Tottenham Court Road among those with the biggest problems.

The stations were unlikely to be finished before the end of summer.

Mr Wild said: “There are 60,000 individual items on Crossrail that need controlling and integrating. The task is huge. I still don’t have an opening date for you.”

Mr Khan, who as chairman of TfL has been accused by critics of failing to spot the scale of the looming problems at Crossrail, said the details being provided by Mr Wild was “one million miles from what we received in the past”.

Sir Terry Morgan was forced to quit as Crossrail chairman last month after losing the support of the Mayor.

Crossrail’s board, which is not open to the public, is meeting today to determine which work to prioritise — and to consider whether trains can start to run before all stations are completed.

Mr Khan said it was vital not to make “pie in the sky” promises about Crossrail’s opening date, but asked Mr Wild whether he was being unduly pessimistic.

He said: “You mentioned you can’t commit to an opening date. You will be aware there are many businesses and residents who are keen for you to finish sooner rather than later. You are not being risk-averse or small-c conservative?” Last week an investigation by financial analysts KPMG said there was a 20 per cent risk that Crossrail would need more than the £2.45 billion of extra public funding it received last month.