Crossrail: Elizabeth line to open on May 24
Gwyn Topham
The Elizabeth line will open on 24 May, with the tunnelled central London section of the long-delayed £19bn Crossrail project now ready for passengers.
Transport for London said that the line will open, subject to final safety approvals, the week prior to the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations.
The line is set to massively boost capacity on transport in London and the South East, cutting journey times, with a number of new stations and much longer, spacious trains.
The Elizabeth line will initially operate as three separate railways, with the overground services already running as TfL Rail in the west and east planned to join directly with the central section from this autumn.
Abena Oppong-Asare, Labour MP for Erith and Thamesmead, tweets:
Here is more footage from the Barclays AGM protests:
protestors have glued themselves to their chairs, @Barclays have put on a loud video to drown out their speeches on the impacts of the projects the bank finances, including someone speaking of her fears for her family in Barbados who face rising sea levels and pollution. pic.twitter.com/6lASzjw00U
— Natasha (@its_ninooo) May 4, 2022
“Owh! That’s hurting” activist whose parents are from Barbados and is glued to her chair addresses @Barclays about climate colonialism. They’ve decided to drown her out by blasting the bank’s greenwash video.
If this isn’t a metaphor for the climate crisis, I don’t know what is pic.twitter.com/6sQOhlqvwv
— Mia Watanabe | 渡辺みあ (@MiaHWatanabe) May 4, 2022
Climate protests at Barclays AGM
Climate protesters have disrupted Barclays annual general meeting this morning, accusing the bank of ‘greenwashing’ for continuing to fund fossil fuel projects.
The AGM in Manchester was briefly suspended after a series of activists spoke out, and were removed by security, with some gluing themselves to chairs.
25 minutes into the meeting and we are yet to get through the introductions and opening preamble. Over 15 activists have spoken with some setting off personal alarms, to raise the alarm on the climate crisis 🚨#BarclaysAGM pic.twitter.com/cVK7mHYvlw
— Kelly Shields (@kellyshields145) May 4, 2022
Looks like almost every shareholder attending @Barclays AGM in person is here to protest the bank’s financing of fossil fuels. It’s chaos. Rape alarms are being set off and thrown on the floor cutting off the chairman from finishing his speech pic.twitter.com/6EbPRAZJ3p
— Mia Watanabe | 渡辺みあ (@MiaHWatanabe) May 4, 2022
PA Media has more details:
Chairman Nigel Higgins was forced to pause the meeting while security removed the protesters as he was repeatedly interrupted, with the activists dominating the first 45 minutes and setting off alarms.
One woman protester glued herself to her seat in the audience to avoid being removed.
Protesters criticised the group over its investment strategy, claiming the bank is continuing to invest heavily in fossil fuels and accused it of “greenwashing”.
One activist said the bank is “morally bankrupt”.
He said: “Barclays has ploughed 160 billion US dollars (£128bn) into fossil fuel extraction.”
Another called on the firm to “change your policy”.
He said: “You did say you were going to do it last year and you failed.
“Please, I’m begging you, after this meeting, change your policy.”
Mr Higgins – appearing flustered amid the disruption – had asked protesters to wait until the question and answer session at the end of the meeting, but was forced to ask security to step in.
Reuters’ banking correspondent Lawrence White reports that the AGM was briefly halted after a protester glued herself to her chair:
Surreal scenes as the company secretary attempts to get on with the meeting while protesters shout over him and staff try to un-stick protesters stuck to their chairs
— Lawrence White (@ReutersLawrence) May 4, 2022
Extinction Rebellion (XR) protestors have also been protesting outside a Barclays bank branch in Oxford this morning.
The boss of fashion retailer Joules is to quit, as the company warns the soaring cost of living has hit company profits.
Nick Jones is stepping down as Joules’ chief executive in the first half of the next financial year, after three years at the business.
The news comes as Joules warns that “challenging” market conditions and weak consumer confidence have hit recent trading, saying:
“Joules has not been immune to these sector-wide pressures, which have led the group’s profit performance to fall below management’s expectations.”
Reduced demand for full-price items hit Joules profit margins, while demand for home and garden products had been “subdued”.
Shares in the company have tumbled almost a third.
Sarah Butler
Boohoo has admitted its clothing prices are likely to rise this year after profits almost halved amid weakening consumer demand and rising costs.
The online fashion specialist said pre-tax profits fell 94% to £7.8m in the year to 28 February. Sales rose 14% to almost £2bn but growth was down more than 40% in the previous year, as deliveries overseas were held up by disruption to international shipping and wavering demand during the pandemic.
The cost of shipping and flying in goods from factories was up £22m, while the bill for posting them out to customers rose £38m. Marketing costs also soared as Boohoo relaunched new brands bought during the pandemic including Debenhams, Dorothy Perkins and Burton.
Profits and sales took a hit as customers returned more unwanted items than they had during the pandemic lockdowns, when the group sold more stretchy garments, such as leggings and hoodies, where an exact fit was less important.
Shares in Boohoo have tumbled 12%.
Sarah Riding, retail and supply chain partner at the law firm Gowling WLG, says the increase in returns is “a severe chink in the amour of the retailer”:
“Regaining this lost ground must now be prioritised through tightening up their returns process and vitally, improving visibility. This is paramount, not only because returns have become a normal and regular aspect of modern consumer behaviour, but because the longer items are out of the supply chain, the less profitable they become.”
Map: The Elizabeth line stations
This map shows how the Elizabeth line will operate:
Passengers travelling in/out on the existing outer branches will change at Paddington or Liverpool Street station until the autumn.
Then, services from Reading, Heathrow and Shenfield should connect with the central tunnels.
The economic clouds over the eurozone have darkened, with new data showing retail sales fell in March, by 0.4%.
It’s a bigger decline than expected, and suggests record high inflation and the Ukraine war hit confidence.
Many EU countries relaxed Covid-19 restrictions in March, which could have supported spending in the shops. However, households are now being hit by soaring energy prices and other costs instead.
The biggest monthly fall was for mail orders and internet purchases, down 4.3%, as people returned to shops rather than buying online.
Quite a deceleration in retail sales in Europe and the ECB has not tightened yet. Eurozone retail sales fell 0.4% in March from the previous month indicating that high inflation and concerns about the war in Ukraine are offsetting the boost from fewer pandemic restrictions. pic.twitter.com/6FDbsO8e3F
— Nicola Lampis (@NicolaLampis) May 4, 2022
Eurozone retail sales back at their pre-covid trend, hard to see a lot of momentum for demand-driven goods prices in Europe at the moment. US looks headed in the same direction but still coming from incredibly strong levels. pic.twitter.com/kJGkAyliSA
— Ángel Talavera (@atalaveraEcon) May 4, 2022
Graphic: Crossrail links services
This graphic shows how Crossrail will link passenger services from the east and west of London.
Transport for London says it will transform travel across London and the South East, by:
“dramatically improving transport links, cutting journey times, providing additional capacity and transforming accessibility with spacious new stations and walk-through trains.
We’ve got big news! The Elizabeth line will open on Tuesday 24 May 2022 🎉
👏 Reduced journey times, 👏 more transport capacity, 👏 improved accessibility plus a huge economic boost to the capital and beyond 👏 pic.twitter.com/M4pe4sIUsc
— Transport for London (@TfL) May 4, 2022
Part of the delay and cost has been in Crossrail’s complicated signalling, which integrates three different systems, our transport correspondent Gwyn Topham explains:
Trains will run automatically in the central tunnels but need to switch to different signalling systems on both the eastern section of the railway to Shenfield and on the lines to Reading and Heathrow in the west.
Until that is fully operational, passengers travelling in the existing TfL Rail outer branches will need to change at Paddington or Liverpool Street stations. Trains from east or west will directly cross the central section later this year, and services running all the way through are expected to start next year.
More signs with the purple livery of the Elizabeth line will be uncovered in the coming weeks, as well as the updated tube map showing the connections with the rest of the TfL network. Bus services will also be changed in east London to connect with the new stations.
Here’s Gwyn’s full story on the Elizabeth line opening:
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has welcomed the news that Crossrail services will finally start running through central London on May 24:
“This is the most significant addition to our transport network in decades, and will revolutionise travel across the capital and the south-east – as well as delivering a £42bn boost to the whole UK economy and hundreds of thousands of new homes and jobs.
“Green public transport is the future and the opening of the Elizabeth line is a landmark moment for our capital and our whole country, particularly in this special Platinum Jubilee year.”
NEW: The Elizabeth Line will open in 20 days time.
The most significant addition to our transport network in decades will:
✅ Revolutionise travel across London and the South East
✅ Give a £42bn boost to the UK economy
✅ Generate new homes and jobs
https://t.co/z2UtsrAj2i— Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) May 4, 2022
Crossrail services will start with 12 trains per hour between Paddington and Abbey Wood, from 6.30am to 11pm.
But they’ll initially only operate from Mondays to Saturdays, with Sunday set aside for further testing and software updates, “in preparation for more intensive services from the autumn.”
The aim is to increase to 22 trains per hour in the autumn, in the peak between Paddington and Whitechapel.
At the start, passengers coming in from the west on trains from Reading and Heathrow to Paddington, and from Shenfield to Liverpool Street in the east, will need to change onto the new trains.
Services from Reading, Heathrow and Shenfield should connect with the central tunnels from this autumn this year.
The Bond Street Elizabeth line station is not ready, so won’t open on May 24 as work is still ongoing after construction problems. TFL hopes it will open by the end of the year.
TFL says:
The station continues to make good progress and the team at Bond Street are working hard to open the station to customers later this year.
Six days a week: that’s all the £19bn Crossrail scheme can manage. No Sunday service on the Elizabeth Line initially “to allow a series of testing and software updates in preparation for more intensive services from the autumn”.
Bond Street remains closed.https://t.co/v0c2BfdjWY— Simon Calder (@SimonCalder) May 4, 2022
Sunday Times transport editor Nicholas Hellen points out that while Crossrail is finally opening in London, the North of England is still waiting for similar investment:
Official: Crossrail’s Elizabeth Line to open May 24th in time for Platinum Jubilee but almost £4bn over budget and more than 3 years late
London and SE will now have a slick service costing more than Channel Tunnel while comparable service from Liverpool to Hull stuck in sidings pic.twitter.com/4WMx1BMZ9U— Nicholas Hellen (@NicholasHellen) May 4, 2022
Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR), or High Speed 3, is a proposal to connect Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds with new fast services, along with upgrades to services to York, Hull and Sheffield.
But in 2021, the government decided the full high-speed east-west line linking Manchester to Leeds will not be built, and scrapped the eastern leg of the HS2 project to Leeds.
The downgrade was heavily criticised, with senior Conservative MPs, regional leaders and industry figures accusing ministers of betraying the north with a delayed and downgraded £96bn rail plan.
Crossrail: much-delayed Elizabeth line to (almost) open on 24 May – notable that it will still have to operate as three separate railways. But at least they’ve got this far. https://t.co/ANVFCHRsrC
— William Upton QC (@willupton) May 4, 2022
Our transport correspondent Gwyn Topham toured the Elizabeth line in February, and reported:
On the first media trip to see the line in action, riding on spacious trains along the tunnels winding from Paddington to Liverpool Street, flaws appeared conspicuously absent. Twelve trains an hour are now running in the central section excavated under the capital, with an official deadline for opening at the end of June.
Andy Byford, the transport commissioner, said the opening would be “a massive fillip to London’s morale and confidence” after the capital was drained of so much life during the pandemic. “When people arrive, day one, they will be blown away by the scale and by how quiet and smooth the train ride is.”
On the concourse below the glass roof of Paddington’s Elizabeth line station, Byford’s words seemed no exaggeration, with trains arriving barely audibly behind the screens sealing the track from the platforms.
Mark Wild, the chief executive of Crossrail, said it was “epic, a beautiful outcome”. Most of the volumes of the newly built stations, such as the control rooms, aren’t even visible, he said: “The Shard would fit in here quite comfortably.”
Crossrail’s first official opening planned for December 2018 was cancelled, and Byford explained in February that the line “has to be flawless” before it launched.
Crossrail have put together this video showing the work behind the long-delayed £19bn line, which finally opens in three weeks:
London’s new Elizabeth line will open on May 24th, says TfL. It has taken years for crossrail to be a reality, and now it’s just days away pic.twitter.com/Abd7bbADAR
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) May 4, 2022
