The Queen Elizabeth train line in London has finally opened

The long-delayed and over-budget Crossrail system in London officially opened to passengers on Tuesday, providing speedier travel from Heathrow Airport and Berkshire in the west to Essex in the east through a network of new, deep tunnels beneath the city.

According to Transport for London, the “Elizabeth” line, which has been renamed in honour of Queen Elizabeth, is anticipated to carry 200 million people per year and improve London’s rail capacity by 10%. (TfL).

Construction on Europe’s largest infrastructure project at the time began more than 12 years ago. The project had a budget of 14.8 billion pounds in 2010 and was scheduled to open in December 2018.

Delayed by issues with safety testing and signalling systems, even before the onset of the pandemic, Crossrail will open three and a half years late and more than 4 billion pounds over budget for a total cost of 18.8 billion pounds ($23.6 billion).

Initially 12 trains per hour will run in each direction through the middle section of the line, which includes 21 kilometres (13 miles) of tunnel, linking Paddington in the west to Canary Wharf and Abbey Wood in the east.