Crossrail’s recently announced additional delays to the opening of the Elizabeth line is expected to see TfL’s projected income fall by between £500 million and £750 million over the next four years.

Although TfL will be gaining income from it’s takeover of the mainline railway out to Reading next month, the main impact on the delays is in the central core of the tunnels, where TfL had been expecting to see an increase in its fares revenue.

In a statement, Crossrail says that although it’s still working on when the central tunnel section will open, it has been working out the expected impact on TfL’s income.

TfL’s December 2018 business plan stated that its revenues could be around £600 million lower than expected as a result of delays to the opening of Crossrail services. TfL is now predicting an approximate reduction in forecast revenues compared to it’s 2018 Business Plan of between £500m and £750m spread across the next four financial years, with most of the impact forecast in 2021/22 and 2022/23.

These current revenue impact assumptions will be fully addressed in TfL’s 2019 update to its Business Plan, which is due to be published in December.

Crossrail expects to be able to give greater clarity on when the Elizabeth line will open early next year.