London's new £19bn transit line opens

Elizabeth Line speeds up east-west travel in the UK capital and its surrounding areas
By Adam Hill May 24, 2022 Read time: 2 mins
Construction of the £19bn project began in 2009 (© ITS International)

London's newest public transportation line opened today.

Construction of the £19bn Elizabeth Line, named after the UK's 96-year-old monarch Queen Elizabeth II, began in 2009.

Designed to speed up travel between the east and west of the UK capital and its surrounds, it was due to open in 2018 but was delayed by engineering difficulties.

The new route is 62 miles (100km), including 25.5 miles (41km) under London and 36.5 miles (59km) above ground.

It halves journey times from Abbey Wood, south-east of London, to Paddington in the centre, to 29 minutes.

While there has been criticism of the 'Crossrail' infrastructure project's $4bn overspend and late opening, much has been made of the economic advantages of having trains running every five minutes via the commercial areas of Canary Wharf and the City of London, as well as into the retail and entertainment areas of the capital's West End.

Mohamed Mezghani, secretary-general of the International Association of Public Transport (UITP), tweeted: "£19bn investment for £42bn positive impact on the economy of London: public transport is good for the economy."

Until autumn 2022, the Elizabeth Line will run as three separate railways, but it is expected to be fully linked after that, connecting to the city of Reading, west of London, and Heathrow Airport, through to the county of Essex to the north-east of London.

Mass Transit & MaaS

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • TfL cycle superhighways plans will still disrupt traffic, says FTA
    January 28, 2015
    The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has set out final plans for the construction of Europe’s longest substantially-segregated urban cycleways, the centrepiece of his US$1.3 billion commitment to get more Londoners on their bikes. Subject to approval by Transport for London, construction of the routes will begin in March. Two continuous cycle routes, almost completely separated from traffic, will cross central London from east to west and north to south, opening up thousands of new journey opportunit
    Read More
  • Real-time driving data reveals rush hour congestion on London’s road during tube strike
    February 6, 2017
    Following the warning by London Underground chiefs of tube strikes until lunchtime Wednesday 8 February, Waze, the real-time crowd-sourced sat nav app, issued data collected during the strike on 9 January to show, for the first time, just how badly London's commuters are affected by strike action. According to Waze, on 9th January, data at the peak-time 8.05am showed that 24 per cent of traffic was bumper to bumper– effectively standstill; at this time on a normal day it is usually around 12 per cent. Th
    Read More
  • Truck platooning: the evidence is complex
    February 6, 2020
    A number of claims are made for the value of truck platooning. David Crawford looks at the figures from a new set of examples which suggest that the situation is more complex than you might think
    Read More
  • Car-free zones part of London 'reimagining'
    May 18, 2020
    Parts of central London will become “one of the largest car-free zones in any capital city in the world”, according to the city’s mayor Sadiq Khan.
    Read More

Highlighted Content