Dear Group
It is hard to decipher from public media what is the status of the Elizabeth Line of the London Tube / rail system ...
Would a recent traveller respond here and let me know if ANY part of the new Elizabeth line (like Paddington to / from Heathrow) is operational ... at all? Anyone ??
Thanks
Terry
Not until 2020 I'm afraid:
https://secretldn.com/elizabeth-line-delayed/
Does this delay mean that handicapped access at the Ealing Broadway station (either escalators or lifts) is also delayed? I am arriving at Heathrow on 20 March. Does anyone know if Ealing Broadway is now more accessible? Thanks.
If it has anything to do with the money-hole and timing disaster that is Cross Rail - Elizabeth Line (and watch this space for the money and time black hole that is HS-2, you ain't seen nothing yet!) it runs up against dynamically changing definitions of how absurdly late and over budget a project can be.
hrrrmph
I don't believe any date projections anymore. We will know how late if it is ever finished when it is finished.
Thanks, Emma. I could have googled that as you did. Sorry about that. Nigel, your description of the Cross Line delays sounds like the Big Dig of Boston.
Continental, was in Ealing in January and saw no lift or escalators at Ealing Broadway. Then again I wasn’t looking closely but given the layout pretty sure I would have noticed escalators.
How great if the Cross Rail were to have finished ON TIME! Yup, I know, dream on. I've done this before from Heathrow -- I'll take the Piccadilly line to Acton Town and then take a taxi to my hotel in Ealing.
So I'm guessing and please let me know if I'm wrong --- the completion of the Cross Line will also mean the completion of the update of its stations to have lifts and/or escalators in operation for easier accessibility between the street and the platform?
Oh it is certainly an engineering marvel of the eons - centimetres away from other tunnels and pipes, just a smidge on the dear side. If the government wants something they will throw limitless funds at it with more billions in it than I knew existed. Have you noticed how something costing Millions is now so very 20th century - they all have Billions now and just trip off the tongue.
Bottomless pit of cash for that and its HS2 mate, to say nothing of the next Cross Rail north south and a certain political nightmare which shall remain nameless.
But is there any money for taking care of mentally ill, elderly or children; libraries or even running buses? Nah.
To be clear, I do think that Cross Rail is needed, and that both lines are needed.
I just wish that they could come close to doing what they said they were going to do, when they said they would do it, and for something in the same universe of what they said they would spend to do it.
Trust is a wonderful thing - something we are woefully short of at the moment.
As for HS2 - an unnecessary boondoggle from start to finish.
Nigel and the others, if you think Crossrail is bad (and as a republican I refuse to sycophantically call it the "Elizabeth Line"), remember Berlin's new airport.
Construction started: September 2006
Originally planned opening date: October 2011
Latest announced opening date: October 2020, but that is described as "unprobable".
Crossrail will be good when it arrives.
I strongly suspect that the first successful flight into Berlin Brandenberg will be carrying the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.(And because I live in the US South, I also think that at least some of the Horsemen would have had to connect through Atlanta to make that Berlin flight)
