Crossrail Ltd is a company wholly owned by TfL that is responsible for delivering the programme, from building the line and stations, through to integrating systems and providing an operational railway. The main governance body overseeing delivery of the programme is the Crossrail Ltd Board. Sponsors' oversight of the programme has been through appointed non-executive members of the Board and through discussions with the Crossrail Executive at the Sponsor Board. The Crossrail Board does not report to the sponsor Board.
The Crossrail delivery model, which involves the establishment of a separate delivery body, was previously used on the programme to develop the Olympic Park (now the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park) in Newham, east London, and to construct the venues required for the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games. This model is now being used on, for example, High Speed 2. The Crossrail model differs from the Olympics and High Speed 2 in that the Olympic Delivery Authority was, and High Speed 2 Ltd is, a non-departmental public body sponsored by government departments, and chief executive officers who are/were also accounting officers.
Crossrail Ltd earned autonomy from the sponsors to deliver the programme - meaning that it had, for example, authority to award major contracts - by passing four review points between July 2008 and April 2011. In our January 2014 report on Crossrail we recommended that the Department should finalise its plans for the development of governance arrangements as appropriate for the transition from construction to operation.