24 May - Crossrail whisks me to Canary Wharf in eleven minutes. Smoothly, quietly and fast
Your Elizabeth Line first train
pictures are here. 47 of them from this morning’s trip. Either three and a
half years late or 40 seconds. Take your pick.
More to come later…
Picture count now up to 97 after a trip to Paddington and back. Careful
observation will show that the first train left 40 seconds late; Photo 26 shows
the station clock and the doors closing. Photos 48 and 49 show the Abbey Wood
platform and being beyond the Paddington barriers 31 minutes later. Even after
walking around Paddington, Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon and Woolwich
stations the round trip took only an hour and 30 minutes.
The only problem I encountered was that after years of climbing into a South
Eastern train I couldn’t stop myself raising my foot and almost stumbling over
the platform level threshold.
When enjoying the benefits of this engineering marvel remember that we almost
didn’t get the Abbey Wood branch. Thankfully in June 2010 our MP devoted her maiden speech to
pleading for its retention.
Note: The first train out of Abbey Wood was driven by Monica
and the first out of Paddington by Emma.