‘These stations are like cathedrals’: Elizabeth line services are ready to roll

theguardian.com:

The faint purple lines are on the map. The safety plans are approved. The Queen has visited. And just before 6.30am next Tuesday, the gates will finally open to millions of passengers. After decades of planning, 13 years of construction and nearly £20bn spent, Crossrail’s Elizabeth line services are ready to roll.

This is still not the finished deal. But its crucial, magnificent core will now be open: the 13 miles of tunnels bored under central London, nine brand new cavernous stations, and digitally controlled trains offering space and speed that underground passengers have never yet enjoyed.

Over the last three years, as construction delays and overspending exposed the hubristic boasts of Crossrail bosses, talk of a British engineering triumph has been muted. Now, though, it is time to marvel again.

“These stations are like cathedrals. These trains are the longest we’ve seen in London,” says Sadiq Khan, the capital’s mayor. “It is world-leading, world-class. I challenge anyone who uses the Elizabeth line next week not to have their breath taken away – it’s just mind-blowing.”

The 205-metre trains, with level boarding for wheelchairs or buggies and no neck-cricking doors, will each carry up to 1,500 people and run every five minutes to begin with, halving the journey time on existing routes to cross London.

Andy Byford, the Transport for London commissioner, had pledged to open the line by mid-2022 when inheriting the project in 2020. But, he admits, given the potent symbolism for the Elizabeth line – and with Crossrail having stood up the monarch once already in 2018: “We sweated blood to get it open before the jubilee.”

The Elizabeth line will for the first few months run as three separate railways, with passengers on what