*the “Elizabeth Line” – official opening for passengers-24th May 2022

Tuesday 24^th May 2022 was a bit of a historic day in London, as it marked the long awaited official opening for passengers, of the new “Elizabeth Line” rail service.

It’s hard to believe that, after thirteen years, this new rail service, formally known as ‘Cross Rail’ – is finally here.

The construction of the Elizabeth Line is the biggest ever rail infrastructure project undertaken in London – in a generation.

The Elizabeth Line comprises of 26 miles of track that comprises of 41 stations that and run services from commuter belt towns from the east and south east of London – through central London – and then right out to the west of London and beyond – which will considerably ease the immense overcrowding of central London’s tube services. (well – pre Covid pandemic anyway).

The Elizabeth Line’s east to west route links all of London’s major mainline rail termini and tube stations.

Although the Elizabeth Line only opened to passengers for the first time last week – the actual ‘history’ of this new rail line, goes back over 100 years!!

Way back as far as 1919 – the very first proposals for an ‘east – west’ rail service right across the middle of London – were tabled – but the idea never gained Government approval or funding.

Proposals for this east-west service resurfaced again in 1943, providing a service that linked up to the then names ‘London Airport’ – but obviously WW2 got in the way of those plans, and these proposals never got any further than the drawing board.

Other proposals submitted and discussed during those times, such as the Victoria Line and Jubilee Line tube services, did eventually go ahead, but decades later.

Then – 30 years ago, a proposal was put forward to Parliament, for this new east-west service – but again, these proposals failed.

However – demand and interest remained high, and in 2005 a revised proposal for this Cross Rail service, were put forward yet again, and this time, the proposal ‘had wings’ – and in 2008 Parliamentary sanction was finally passed for a new ‘Cross Rail’ service.

Work on the new Cross Rail’s 26 miles of ‘new’ tunnels, started in 2011 and took 4 years to complete.

In 2016 – Boris Johnson (then Mayor of London) renamed Cross Rail as the “Elizabeth Line”, to honour Queen Elizabeth II.

The construction of 10 ‘new’ stations began in 2016 – and were ‘handed over’ completed and ready, to Transport for London (TfL) in 2021.

Each one of these 10 new stations has been designed to represent/reference the area in which they are located.

These 10 new Elizabeth Line stations are:-

Abbey Wood – Bond Street – Custom House – Canary Wharf – Farringdon – Tottenham Court Road – Liverpool Street – Paddington – Whitechapel – Woolwich

Elizabeth Line – “Facts”

** The existing tube stations on these sites have all be upgraded to accommodate their ‘new’ attachment – and the 31 existing stations on the Line have had significant improvement work done to them.

** The new passage-ways within these new stations are wider in design than any of London’s other stations. They have no angled corners, just sweeping curves – to prevent the build-up of rubbish blowing about everywhere – and to make them safer in terms of passenger visibility.

** Obviously each station has completely new signage – coloured purple, which is the colour of the Elizabeth Line on a standard London Tube Map.

** The familiar everyday signage throughout all the other tube stations has obviously had to be changed too, to reflect the new Elizabeth Line

** An Elizabeth Line train is 200m long and designed to hold up to 1,500 passengers each train.

** A new train depot has been built at ‘Old Oak Common’ in Willesden-NW London that can ‘house’ 42 of the Elizabeth Line’s 72 new trains.

** The new fabric pattern (known in the trade as a Moquette) covering the Elizabeth Line seats – is predominantly purple in colour, reflecting the Line’s ‘brand’ – a fact that has prompted some train geeks, (with a sense of humour), to adopt Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’ to ‘Purple Train’ as the Elizabeth Line’s anthem!!

** During the construction of the Elizabeth Line, the engineering and excavation work uncovered over 10,000 objects of archaeological significance and interest.

** 100 archaeologists worked alongside the construction companies, discovering and collecting items from the 40 tunneling sites – an operation that uncovered 55 million years worth of London history under the soil – and finding artefacts from Roman / Black Death / Medieval / Industrial Revolution eras, plus thousands more that pre-dated those times. In fact the excavation work was referred to as a ‘layer cake’ of history.

** Boring out and digging the extremely deep Elizabeth Line tunnels presented engineers with some very tricky challenges. For example, when excavating at Farringdon, a number of the foundations of the buildings surrounding the existing Farringdon station, had to be underpinned – to prevent them sinking into the tunnels being dug out underneath them.

** The Elizabeth Line is the largest investment in the London’s transport system, in 70 years.

** It is predicted that the Elizabeth Line will increase London’s rail capacity by 10% – by carrying 200m passengers per year.

** It is hoped that by autumn 2022 full services will run to and from and through central London from Heathrow and Reading.

** By May 2023 it is planned that the entire line and its final time-table will be introduced – with services running every 5 mins – 12 trains per hour.

Last week’s launch of the Elizabeth Line on the 24^th May – was a once in a generation type event that my London Shoes just had to be a part of.

My ‘home town’ station ‘Gidea Park’ is part of the Elizabeth Line – just a few stops away from ‘Shenfield’ – the final stop on the eastern section of the Line.

The London bound platform at Gidea Park station had been furnished with its new ‘destination board’ – displaying all the stations on the new Line that can be accessible from Gidea Park.

Shoes’s first stop was Liverpool Street station, where I explored it’s new  Elizabeth Line station, and very impressive it was too. Then from Liverpool Street, I took a train to the new ‘Paddington’ Elizabeth Line station – taking in the new Farringdon and Tottenham Court Road stations.

When travelling on an Elizabeth Line train, the first thing you notice is just how ‘smooth’ the journey is, in relation to the noisy rattles and shakes of the average tube train.

The second noticeable feature is just how wide the new platforms are, and how much bright space there is throughout its tubular passageways – a complete contrast to the low ceilinged claustrophobic dark walkways of normal tube stations.

So – having mooched around the new Elizabeth Line platforms and concourse at Paddington – taking in the carnival/party atmosphere created by TfL staff for all the hundreds of ‘explorers’ like myself – I headed  back east on an Abbey Wood destined Elizabeth Line train – taking in the new Tottenham Court Road – Farringdon – Liverpool Street – Whitechapel stations – and getting off at the new Canary Wharf station.

Obviously, having worked at Canary Wharf for a considerable number of years – I am well versed in its Jubilee Line and Dockland Light Railway Line stations – so, it was good to experience the ‘finished article’ of its new platforms and station building, that I actually witnessed beginning worked on, at the very start of its construction, when they reclaimed the land from the dock’s waters – way before I retired in 2017.

Having taken-in this new Canary Wharf station – it was time to head back on the old EL to Liverpool Street, and then onto the eastern section of the new Line, back home to Gidea Park.

Yes – everyone is saying how horrendously over budget this project has cost and the fact that its taken 13 years to deliver – but on the positive side, it certainly brightens up a commute – and its gonna take so much pressure off the overcrowded tube services through central London – and to think, by 2023 – you’ll be able to hop on a train in the burbs, and more or less shoot straight through to Heathrow, without chopping and changing lines.

In the week since it was officially launched – stats show that over 2m have travelled on the Elizabeth Line….and that cant be bad can it.

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See below – the entire gallery of photos taken to support this blog