Nine out of the 10 central Elizabeth line station stations have now been transferred to Transport for London (TfL) ahead of the start of passenger services through the central section of Crossrail in the first half the year.
TfL said the handover of Canary Wharf Elizabeth line station means it can be fully integrated with the operational network, while London mayor Sadiq Khan described it as ‘another big milestone for the Elizabeth line’.
Crossrail chief executive Mark Wild said: ‘This beautiful and iconic station will help connect this key business district to the City of London, the West End and Heathrow. These more seamless journeys will improve access to employment and create further job opportunities.
‘We are progressing well with trial operations, which is the final phase before passenger services. With a series of more complex exercises, which will include evacuations of trains and stations using thousands of staff due to begin soon.’
Last week TfL said services through the central section of the much delayed cross-London railway will open ‘in the first half of 2022’, initially running between Abbey Wood and the Paddington Elizabeth line station.
It pointed out however, that the Elizabeth line will initially operate as three separate railways. Customers from the West will need to change at Paddington for services through the central section of the route, while customers travelling west on the Shenfield branch will need to change at Liverpool Street.
Trial Operations in a Crossrail tunnel. Source: TfL
TfL said that significant progress had been made towards completing the line over Christmas, with planned upgrades taking place. The latest Siemens signalling software for the railway was commissioned along with the updated Alstom train software installed on trains. There were also upgrades to both the control communications system and the tunnel ventilation system.
Canary Wharf Elizabeth line station sits below a five-storey mixed-use development known as Crossrail Place. Like the nearby Underground station, it is constructed in a dock, in this case the North Dock of West India Quay. The station box is 256 metres long, greater than the height of the nearby One Canada Square, one of the UK’s tallest buildings.
During construction nearly 100 million litres of water were pumped out of the station box, enough to fill 40 Olympic-sized swimming pools, and several hundred fish were safely relocated.
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