Voice of London

Bond Street is finally set to open for customers on the Elizabeth Line , after months of delay.

After the initial opening of the line got delayed from 2018 to the 17 May this year, the station still wasn’t finished. At one point, it was running 18 months behind schedule, intensified by the delays in construction due to Covid lockdowns.

TfL will open it on Monday 24 October, thus bringing passengers from Abbey Wood straight into the posh shopping street and the greater West End area.

Adam Hug, Leader of Westminster City Council, said passengers “will be able to travel to stations such as Liverpool Street and Canary Wharf in eight minutes and 15 minutes respectively” from the station.

There are also two new entrances designed exclusively for the newest addition to London’s transport network: one on Davies Street and one on Hanover Square.

This marks the end of the project in central London, however, not all work is done yet: the next phase will begin on the 6 November, when the various routes of the line will begin running as one whole line.

The line will take passengers from Reading to retail therapy and passengers from Heathrow to take their train home from Farringdon, seven days a week, with greatly reduced journey times across the city centre.

What does this mean in practicality though?

The Elizabeth Line has improved millions of journeys already; if you’re going to Heathrow, you can now get there faster than using the Piccadilly line, and cheaper than using the Heathrow Express.

If you live in West Ealing, you can expect a massive improvement to transport and the surrounding area overall with time.

Woolwich, a post-industrial district in south-east London, which previously was only connected to central London via trains and the DLR, is now 15 minutes away from the heart of the City.

Connected at last

Bond Street will be the so-called crown jewel of the line – it took more time to complete, but it’s set to become one of the busiest interchanges, and receiving not one, but two new entrances to the station concourse.

People already described the railway as “fit for a queen” and the entrances as “cathedrals” – referring to the architecture. After decades of planning, London’s newest addition to its public transport network and its symbol of recovery from the events of previous years’ will finally be complete.

The Elizabeth Line is scheduled to start operating its final timetable by May next year, when there will be approximately 24 trains operating per hour at peak times on the central section.

Words: Istvan Beres | Subbing: Lumi Leinonen