Half a billion people can’t be wrong. That’s how many journeys have been made on the Elizabeth line since it opened in May 2022, transforming travel through London.
Imagine this, my friends in the Big Apple: you land at Heathrow Airport on May 23, 2022, and you decide to take the train into central London — joining the five million people who did the same each year. You’d have arrived at Paddington Station, where your journey would have paused. Most passengers would hop into a taxi or switch to the Tube or a bus. And while that journey was already a pretty good experience, it was nothing compared to what awaited travelers the very next day.
Roll forward 24 hours, and suddenly, your ride doesn’t just end at Paddington. Instead, your train dives into shiny new underground platforms, connecting you seamlessly to the heart of the city. You stay onboard, passing through Bond St. (London’s Fifth Ave.), Tottenham Court Road (Soho’s entertainment hub), and Farringdon, a new mega-interchange serving 173 stations across London and the Southeast on both the east-west Elizabeth line and Thameslink, its north-south equivalent.
At peak times, trains leave every 40 seconds from just four platforms, connecting passengers to three of London’s five airports and economic hubs like Cambridge, Brighton, and Reading. It’s no wonder Goldman Sachs invested £1 billion on a new HQ just steps from Farringdon station.
But the transformation doesn’t stop there. You can glide to Liverpool St. in the historic City of London, or continue on to Stratford, Canary Wharf, or the Excel Centre — all without leaving the same train you boarded at Heathrow. It’s not just infrastructure; it’s a redefinition of London’s geography.
The Elizabeth line is more than a marvel of engineering. It represents what cities like New York and London can achieve when ambition and consensus align. Yes, Britain is notorious for making a hash of big infrastructure projects (just Google “HS2” if you need proof), but the Elizabeth line defied the odds.
Authorized under a Labour government, built under a Conservative one, and opened under a mixed political landscape, it’s a testament to the power of sustained political consensus. Contrast that with the third runway at Heathrow, which is no closer to either being built or killed off as an idea than it was when it was first formally proposed 23 years ago.
The results of the remarkable consensus behind the Elizabeth line speak for themselves. I remember travelling on the trains on the first day, and found hundreds of thousands of Londoners quietly using the route as if it had always been there. Today, no one can really imagine the city without it.
It’s hard to overstate its impact. The U.K. has one of the densest, best-used railway networks in the world. In a typical year, more than 1.5 billion trips are taken by train in the U.K., yet one in six of these rides is now on the Elizabeth line.
But what truly sets it apart is the vision behind it. The stations aren’t just functional; they’re works of art. In an age of austerity, the Elizabeth line exudes confidence in the city’s future. Sure, there were the delays and cost overruns common to virtually all major infrastructure projects, but you’d struggle to find anyone today who would argue it wasn’t worth every penny.
The line is also a poignant reminder. Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, made one of her final public appearances to open the railway named in her honor. Just months later, she passed away after 70 years on the throne, leaving behind a legacy — and a railway — that will serve generations to come.
New York, the lessons for you are clear. Transformational infrastructure is about more than transport — it’s about the power to connect people to economic opportunity, to redefine a city’s geography and to showcase a city’s ambition. The Elizabeth line shows what’s possible when vision meets commitment and is reinforced with consensus.
So, as you debate your own big-ticket projects like Penn Station’s redevelopment, remember this: if you get it right, from the very first moment the gates swing open, no one will be able to imagine the city working without it.
Ableman is the former director of strategy & innovation at Transport for London and was a director at TfL when the Elizabeth line opened; previously, he was a director at Chiltern Railways, where he led the launch of the Oxford to London line in 2016, the first new rail link to London from a major British city in 100 years. He now runs Freewheeling, a London-based consultancy helping transport and mobility organizations deliver change and innovation.
