I was going to do a Dart construction update today but nothing has fundamentally changed since the last two dated August 2nd and August 16th so nothing is worthy of a photo.
Work seems to be progressing very slowly and might be down to the emergency cash injection the project needs, which is due to a £18m overspend, as the council has yet to cough up.
Looking at the time-line of completion date targets, the build was meant to be finished in the first week of June. The installation of the Dart equipment is meant to be finished at the end of this month when train testing is meant to begin for an April 2021 opening. That is clearly not going to happen so I am guessing the project is at least 6 months behind schedule and maybe more.
Once it is open will there be enough income to clear the £243 debt and its day to day running costs? At the moment the shuttle bus operation is run by Thameslink at no cost to LLAL or the Council. The prospect is that the Dart will actually have to be subsidised by the Council taxpayers who will never use it and who are already being hammered by airport loses and airport debts.
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