BY THE NUMBERS:

41 months

The delay to the Elizabeth Line’s original opening date in December 2018.

£18.9 billion

The estimated cost (US$25 billion) of the project, 28% more than the £14.8 billion budget set in 2010.

£9

The price of a pair of Elizabeth Line moquette socks at the London Transport Museum shop (lt museumshop.co.uk).

1,500 kilometers

The length of cable being used to supply power, lighting, and ventilation systems to the railway.

118 kilometers

The total length of the route’s three segments, which will be fully integrated this autumn.

14,000

The number of people employed by the project at the peak of construction.

10%

The amount by which the project will expand London’s rail capacity when fully operational, making it the biggest single upgrade to the system in more than 70 years.

205 meters

The length of each of the 70 new nine-carriage trains, which is some 60% longer than the average Tube train and designed to carry 1,500 people at rates (eventually) of up to 24 trains per hour.

200 million

The number of passengers expected to use the line each year.

38 minutes

The journey time from Heathrow to Canary Wharf once the sections of the line are connected, down from more than an hour via Tube. Getting from

Paddington to Liverpool Street takes just 11 minutes.

210,000

The number of precast concrete segments lining the 42 kilometers of new rail tunnels.

2.8 kilometers

The combined length of the 81 escalators at the nine new Elizabeth Line stations between Paddington and Woolwich.

3,000,000 tons

The amount of excavated material from the new tunnels shipped to Essex to create Jubilee Marsh, a 115-hectare nature reserve on Wallasea Island. According to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, which manages the site, the wetland habitat is already rich with waders and wildfowl.

200+

The number of archaeologists who worked at the various sites when tunnel excavation was at its peak. Together, they uncovered tens of thousands of artifacts, including 8,000-year-old flint tools, Roman coins, Tudor shoes, and Victorian pickle pots.

120 years

The design life of the project.