One’s ticket to ride... on one’s own Tube line!
IF you’re having a multibillion-pound Underground line named after you, you’d hope that a ticket would be surplus to requirements.
But as she made a surprise appearance to open the new Elizabeth Line yesterday, the Queen was handed an Oyster card loaded with £5 credit.
Radiant in yellow, she was shown how to use it on a ticket machine, but didn’t top it up.
Elizabeth Line customer experience assistant Kofi Duah said of the royal tech lesson: ‘She said, “Where can I use it?” I said, “You can use it across our line, so from Paddington to Abbey Wood”. She said, “Oh nice, splendid”.’
Prince Edward had been due to mark the completion of the Crossrail-built project – estimated to have cost £18.9billion and due to open fully next Tuesday – by opening the line alone.
But in a last-minute change of plan, the Queen, 96, who has been suffering mobility problems, joined Edward, 58.
Smiling with a walking stick, she wore a Stewart Parvin double-wool crepe coat with an Aline silk dress in shades of yellow, royal blue and turquoise, a matching hat by Rachel TrevorMorgan and a gold filigree and diamond brooch.
The royals were welcomed at Paddington Station by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and Transport for London commissioner Andy Byford.
It came after the Queen was presented with a Karabakh horse from the President of Azerbaijan at Windsor Castle on Monday.
...and she was back in the saddle at Windsor too