Yet more opening dates have been promised to baffled prospective passengers waiting for the Crossrail scheme to open.

The botched project to unite the railways east and west of London through a new tunnel was originally due to open in December 2018.

The public was assured in July of that year that the line connecting Reading and Heathrow airport in the west with Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east would open fully within five months.

Crossrail now says only part of the line will be running “in summer 2021”.

But key stretches of the project will not see through trains serving west London, Heathrow, Berkshire and Essex until the following year.

The Elizabeth Line, as the link has been named, will initially open between Paddington and Abbey Wood in southeast London in “summer 2021”. The Independent has learnt that Crossrail’s definition of “summer” stretches to September.

Initially the line from Paddington will serve stations including Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon, Liverpool Street, Whitechapel and Canary Wharf.

The full service connecting Shenfield in Essex with Heathrow and stations to Reading “will commence by mid-2022”. The target month is believed to be May, to coincide with one of the two annual timetable changes. 

The chief executive, Mark Wild, said: “I know that Londoners are deeply frustrated by the delays to the Elizabeth Line and we are doing everything we can to get this railway finished and open.

“There are no shortcuts to delivery of this hugely complex railway.”

He insisted that “good progress” was being made on the central tunnelled section.

While it was feared that Bond Street station would not be finished before the line opened, Mr Wild said he was “increasingly confident” that it would be ready in time.

The cost of the project has ballooned. The original £14.8bn estimate is now expected to be at least £18bn, with a possible further quarter-billion-pound overspend.

In addition Transport for London is missing out on tens of millions of pounds in ticket revenue for every week that it remains closed – which will take the cost above £20bn, over one-third more than originally planned.

Business groups gave a lukewarm response to the announcement. Sean McKee of the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said: “Delays to the project have been a blow to those businesses that made investment decisions based upon the previous timelines.

“These firms will now hope for the earliest possible opening date.”

The Greater London branch of the Federation of Small Businesses said in a tweet: “We hope the timescales can be met and will continue to engage with Crossrail on the project.”

Crossrail is not the only capital city underground rail project that has faced problems. The North-South Metro line in Amsterdam opened seven years late in 2018, and cost more than twice the original budget.

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