Through services to start on Eli

EXACTLY 80 years and 49 weeks after the first public proposal was made for an east-west, crossLondon full-size railway, the £18.8 billion Elizabeth Line (Crossrail) will finally connect Paddington and Abbey Wood when it opens to the public on Monday May 24.

Providing new journey options and supporting regeneration across the capital, it will add an estimated £42bn to the UK economy. It is also three and a half years late and £2.9bn over its original £15.9bn budget, agreed 15 years ago.

An indication of its transformative nature is that it will connect Paddington to Canary Wharf in only 17 minutes.

It is the first step in a threestage process that will entail a full service and all stations open “by May 2023”, according to Transport for London. By then, 41 stations (of which ten are new) on the 60-mile route (fully integrated with London’s network) will be handling an expected 200 million passengers a year.

As well as increasing central London rail capacity by 10%, it will reduce overcrowding on Tube pinch-points (such as Oxford Circus) and enable parallel bus routes to be changed, reducing traffic congestion. Changes will also be made to 14 bus routes to improve links to Elizabeth Line stations in east and south-east London.

“The Elizabeth Line’s opening in a few weeks is a major shot in the arm for the city after its toughest few years since the war,” said Nick Bowes, Chief Executive of Centre for London, the capital’s dedicated think-tank that develops