please empty your brain below
Goodness, if I’d known you were going to summarise it in that detail I needn’t have got up at 4 am to ride it! Of course though, the most important question is “which *first*train were you on?“

Robert | 25.05.22 - 7:11 a.m. | #

"a potential optical illusion which means you might not spot a train is waiting in the platform until it's too late"

You can remove "potential" - I was duly caught out while saying goodbyes to friends traveling the other direction and had to wait 10 minutes, as it was that time of day.

Is the diagonal lift at Farringdon's Barbican/Smithfield exit a funicular railway? It travels at the same speed as the escalators, which makes that "race" oddly exciting.

commonliner | 25.05.22 - 7:32 a.m. | #

Woolwich/mucky glass - perhaps with open sections at each end a lot of dirt gets bought in by the trains.

Still Anon | 25.05.22 - 7:40 a.m. | #

Any idea why there was a screen next to the gate line at Whitechapel which featured an Elizabeth line roundel and the words Local Network Fault underneath?

deltic | 25.05.22 - 8:38 a.m. | #

At Farringdon, there is a nice direct interchange from Elizabeth line to Thameslink, but they forgot to install Oyster readers along the way, so passengers changing from a contactless to a paper ticket are being advised to exit and reenter the station to touch out while they interchange!

Dan | 25.05.22 - 9:44 a.m. | #

Walk From Liverpool Street to Farringdon Underground? I'll be intrigued by Moorgate-Barbican. Unless you mean via the Widened Lines, which is not available to the public.

Strabismus | 25.05.22 - 9:47 a.m. | #

It's good to learn it's finally complete! I now look forward to a similar scheme linking Waterloo and Victoria with King's Cross and Euston. It shouldn't take very long to get such a project done - should it..?

cau1khead | 25.05.22 - 10:00 a.m. | #

I took your advice and ventured out the station at Abbey Wood to the Lesnes Abbey Wood ruins, following and passing groups of people doing exactly the same. The cafe in the park was doing a good trade despite the showers.

Hopefully a positive for the area and demonstrates why good public transport projects are essential.

Woolwich Wanderer | 25.05.22 - 10:19 a.m. | #

It's only now I've seen your picture of Tottenham Court Road that I appreciate how long the platforms really are.

Jonathan Wadman | 25.05.22 - 10:30 a.m. | #

Thanks for this post. Living in a NW borough I'm not sure, like with the Overground, how often I'm going to get to use the Purple Line as other lines into central London are more convenient!

Cornish Cockney | 25.05.22 - 10:51 a.m. | #

Marvellous! And I see the great Carto Metro map has just been updated‼ Sort-of-to-scale, handy for seeing relative platform locations. Still struggling to Believe It’s Now Possible To Walk From Liverpool Street to Farringdon Underground so looking forward to your further revelations, not to mention your sweepstake on the opening century for Crossrail 2.

Rich G | Homepage | 25.05.22 - 2:04 p.m. | #

Fantastic photos, as ever.

I'm glad you've been because I never will now. I can't say I'm upset about that.

I rather like the new seat fabric. Or should I say, 'moquette'? I'm not spoddish enough to know (but I did have to look up that word).

Blue Witch | Homepage | 25.05.22 - 2:14 p.m. | #

Wow a new railway line in London. Does the rest of the country get anything new now to make life better?

Tones | 25.05.22 - 2:35 p.m. | #

Great post.
You must have been planning how to do this post for years!!!
On several pictures the stations seem empty of people, which is suprising!

MikeK | 25.05.22 - 2:46 p.m. | #

The last eight new UK railway stations were in Berwickshire, Cambridgeshire, Ceredigion, Aberdeenshire, Worcestershire, Glasgow, Cheshire and Somerset.

stopgrumbling | 25.05.22 - 2:47 p.m. | #

Despite their impressive scale, I was a bit disappointed by the same-iness of most of the underground interiors and passageways, with their smooth and dimpled concrete. Not such an exciting day out as exploring the Jubilee Line extension back whenever, with each station offering a different experience, climaxing with the breathtaking Escher-like subterranean interior at Westminster.

ActonMan | 25.05.22 - 4:19 p.m. | #

I wonder how many of these awesome feats of architecture and engineering (aka stations) have passenger loos? Some of us oldies might get caught short on these long platforms.

dg writes: list.

FatsBrannigan | 25.05.22 - 4:54 p.m. | #

See, you say "...there's only a finite amount of Crossrail content still to appear." But we all know that you still have content for all the other lines.....indeed, the Dangleway has received more content than you probably ever wanted to provide. Lets not get your hopes up.

Steven | 25.05.22 - 5:21 p.m. | #

The loo list is superficially impressive, but, looked at closely, shows that most of the provision is either in existing mainline stations (eg Paddington, Reading) or “in adjacent building”, the latter putting travellers at the mercy of opening times arbitrarily determined by (unspecified) random commercial businesses outside the stations. Even at Heathrow Ts 2 - 4, the nearest loos are in the terminals, which is a hell of a schlep from the platforms. I’d have hoped a new central/suburban railway line opening in the 21st century might have made toilet provision a basic design spec; but, then, that would imply an element of passenger service

Labourer | 25.05.22 - 6:27 p.m. | #

An excellent account, thanks so much.

The CartoMetro map provides endlessly time-consuming fascination, thank you Rich G.

Herbof | 25.05.22 - 7:53 p.m. | #

Don’t understand the bit about Farringdon allowing two extra carriages if the other stations don’t.

dg writes: the others do.

Kev | 25.05.22 - 9:49 p.m. | #

Two passable pics of the temporary platform roundels at Bond Street. You'd be welcome to use them if you have any future need.

Lorenzo | 26.05.22 - 2:16 p.m. | #

I wonder if you could access teh barbicn high level walkways from moregate... then you'd have walked from liverpool st to barbican without waling on the ground

Alistair Twin | 26.05.22 - 3:57 p.m. | #











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