Oral history; interview with Kim Kapur, 2023
Main details
| Reference number | 2023/1137 |
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| Dates | 20/07/2023 |
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| Topics | |
| Completeness | 59% |
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Physical description
Item content Attribute Value Object title Oral history interview with Kim Kapur, 2023 -
Interview summary
Track 1 of 1 [01:16:01] Kim Kapur was born in 1977 in Leicester. Parents were business owners. Talks about moving around as a child. Didn't have any career aspirations at school. Explains early role in business management including with Institute of Professional Auditors. Moved to role at Cable and Wireless as project co-ordinator. Then worked for WorldCom (now Horizon) covering Germany and Italy. Then worked for Level Three Communications on sales and network migrations. Eventually started role at London Underground [00:05:00]. Talks about early role with PPP project. Became programme manager for LU (London Underground) station modernisation. Also worked on Cooling the Tube project. Mentions considering move to Thameslink but was told to speak to Rob Andrews, who was running LU Crossrail team at the time. Encouraged to stay to join team. Assurance process needed to be set up. Was at stage when development agreement had been signed. Started as Assurance Manager in 2008. Talks about gaining understanding of impact of Crossrail project on LU. Talks about moving to role as Senior Project Manager for handover in 2015-16. Explains what role involved. Continued to work on assurance. Talks about importance of this. Talks about mapping route for getting to the point of operating [00:10:00]. Describes process and all functions that were included. Explains that process got LU ahead of the game when communicating with Crossrail. Talks about relationship with Crossrail team. Mentions Mark Wild arriving as Managing Director of LU. Talks about showing him the route map [00:15:00]. Moved to role as Programme Manager for LU Crossrail team. Talks about getting LU stations ready for operations. Describes what makes 5 LU stations unique. Integration of Crossrail into LU systems. Talks about run up to 2018 delay announcement. Explains importance of Crossrail systems running through LU stations being ready including comms, CCTV. Mentions frustration of systems not being installed [00:20:00]. Talks about challenge of Crossrail programme working in silos. Mentions speaking to Simon Wright. Explains what wasn't completed at 2018. Talks further about delay announcement. Tells story of taking engineers to Broadway for meeting to discuss moving forward [00:25:00]. Working out what the minimum requirements were to enable opening. Turned these into statutory certifications. Ensuring stations would be safe for passengers and staff. Put LU team in a position where they could help Crossrail to deliver [00:30:00]. Comms was critical asset that wasn't ready in 2018. Talks about non-LU stations, different operating strategy. Reliant on receiving a digital railway, which LU wasn't. Talks about LU leaning on 160 years of experience of running a railway including major challenges such as fires and bombings. LU knows how to continue safe and efficient operations. Explains LU couldn't change operating model for sake of 5 Crossrail stations. Talks about tensions this created [00:35:00]. Mentions Mark [Wild] moving over to Crossrail. Describes change of reporting structure. Started reporting to Howard Smith. Talks further about complexity of integrating Crossrail assets into LU stations, compared to standalone Crossrail stations. Working as Head of Station Integration at this stage [00:40:00]. Describes culture and priorities post delay announcement. Teams of key roles at each station. Mentions t-minus process. Tells story of planner developing timeline for opening. Started with one line for operations but grew to cover all areas of delivery [00:45:00]. Describes pressure of run-up to opening. Wanting to work together to deliver, pushed team. Talks about Bond Street and reasons for delay with opening. Challenge with contractor and also tunnelling being behind. Describes developing overall opening strategy once Mark Wild had taken over. Earliest Opening Programme (EOP). Mentions Pradeep [Vasudev], Colin Brown, Chris Binns. Pushed need for live safety systems in place [00:50:00]. Explains looking at map to work out minimum stations that needed to be operable in central section to open line. Talks about Whitechapel also being behind schedule. Describes different states that stations could be to be operable. Mentions false starts with new opening dates. Explains the planning for Bond Street to be delayed. Describes how focus shifted towards Bond Street post-opening [00:55:00]. Applied for role as Close Out Director. To be in place once Mark Wild and Jim Crawford had finished in their roles. Appointed in early 2022. Explains how previous role had shifted once Whitechapel had been handed over to LU. Describes how approach was different to get Bond Street open. Talks about Jim [Crawford] staying in role. Role then changed to Delivery Director. Talks about bringing Dave Lock as project manager from Whitechapel to Bond Street. Explains there being no tier one contractor on Bond Street at that point [01:00:00]. Some people from Whitechapel team also moved across. Bond Street opened on Andy Byford's last day as Commissioner at TfL in October 2022. Reflects on how Bond Street was delivered [01:05:00]. Talks about support from senior managers. Talks about leaving Crossrail in April 2023 when final commissioning was completed. Explains how role still included Close Out Director. Creating close out strategy for Crossrail as a company. Included IT system, HR, contracts with staff. Over 400 contracts to close. Describes it as great fun. Now works as Stations Client Director for phase one of HS2 [High Speed 2]. Explains remit of role. Reflects on learnings from Crossrail including not forgetting the operator [01:10:00]. Talks about Elizabeth line exceeding expectations. Reflects on stations looking like artist pictures. How excited passengers were. Talks about affection for the line and people who worked on it. Talks about how impressed HS2 colleagues are of what was achieved on Crossrail. Ends with reflecting on importance of sharing experience with others and owning the whole from the beginning. End of recording [01:16:01] Please note: this is a summary of the full original recording rather than the edited web version -
People involved
Role Person(s) involved Interviewer Jen Kavanagh, 20/07/2023 -
Associated companies, people and places
Places Interview location Podium office, Euston, 20/07/2023