Purple faces, crossed legs
NEW railway stations. They’re a bit like buses: you wait ages for one to open and then… you know the rest. Actually, it’s more like a whole fleet of buses arriving, as within the last month more than 10 stations have welcomed their first passengers. Admittedly, nine of those were on the Elizabeth Line/Crossrail/Purple Line. (It should have been 10, but Bond Street is delayed until later this year.) Pedants will quickly point out that technically these aren’t new stations, they are new platforms and concourses of existing stations (Crossrail, see p78, and Bank on the London Underground, see p36), while even Reston (see p12) is the latest incarnation of a previous station.
The same pedants are likely to be those carping about the Elizabeth Line. In fact, the quibbling had begun well before the public opening on May 24. Yes, we agree it has taken an awfully long time. Yes, we also agree that opening three and a half years late isn’t ideal (and actually full opening won’t happen for yet another year). These are all valid points. But, really, if the line does what it’s supposed to do, we think they’ll be quickly forgotten.
More of an issue, we believe, are the trains themselves and more specifically their spartan fit-out. All 70 Class 345s have now been in passenger service. Yet on opening day we found Wi-Fi coverage was very limited. TfL tells us that ‘in tunnel’ Wi-Fi won’t be delivered until later this year. Hmmm, okay, but there are more fundamental issues: arguably the hardest seats on the network and no on-train toilets. The lack of these features isn’t new and might (though we struggle to see how) have seemed a good idea 10 or so years ago when the trains were designed. But when Elizabeth Line opens in its entirety, we suspect travelling from, say, Romford to Reading or vice versa will feel like an endurance test. Let’s just hope that, having crossed our legs for the duration, the station toilets (like those we managed to miss at Abbey Wood) are open!
Mark Simmons