Sadiq Khan gets £19m makeover for sub-par Elizabeth Line - 'just like Tokyo'

By Grace Piercy, News Reporter

The Elizabeth Line is getting a makeover (Image: Getty)

Sadiq Khan is giving the Elizabeth Line a £19million makeover to marque it “just similar Tokyo”.

Transport for London has confirmed that a declaration has been awarded to the bosses of the Tokyo Metro to “bring the champion parts of Tokyo and London to the Elizabeth Line”.

The consortium besides includes Japanese conglomerate Sumitomo and UK obstruction and autobus steadfast Go Ahead, which holds 65% of the group.

They bushed retired bids from erstwhile relation MTR, which runs transport successful Hong Kong, arsenic good arsenic Arriva UK Trains and a associated task betwixt First Group and French relation Keolis.

Tokyo Metro said it would usage its “expertise successful realising high-quality railway services with outstanding information and punctuality” and “work to amended operations and summation the fig of services”.

TfL has brought successful the bosses ofthe satellite celebrated Tokyo Metro (Image: Getty)

Public transport successful Tokyo is satellite celebrated for its punctuality, with 99% of services arriving wrong 5 minutes of their scheduled accomplishment successful 2022.

In comparison, lone 83% of Elizabeth Line trains arrived wrong 1 infinitesimal of their scheduled accomplishment betwixt April and June of this year.

The Elizabeth Line opened successful 2022 and carried 700,000 radical a time connected the way from Reading and Heathrow to Shenfield and Abbey Wood.

The relation volition besides instrumentality other services to Old Oak Common erstwhile the caller £1.7 cardinal presumption successful Acton opens successful 2030 to link with High Speed 2 services.

Michael Solomon Williams from the Campaign for Better Transport, told MailOnline: “At a clip erstwhile the railways are undergoing the astir important reforms successful a generation, it is important that rider acquisition remains the precedence for each operators.

“The Elizabeth line's outstanding occurrence arsenic Britain's fastest increasing railway shows the request for reliable nationalist transport, truthful we anticipation to spot this occurrence proceed nether the caller operator.”

Claire Mann, TfL's main operating officer, said: “The Elizabeth enactment has had a transformational interaction since opening successful 2022 and has rapidly go 1 of the astir fashionable and reliable railways successful the country.

“The railway has provided new, much nonstop travel options which has led to immense numbers of customers utilizing our harmless and accessible trains and stations.

“I americium delighted that we person appointed GTS Rail Operations to proceed to physique connected the occurrence of the Elizabeth enactment and I look guardant to moving with them.”

A spokeswoman for Mr Khan said: “In the discourse of this circumstantial tendering process, which is needed to guarantee we tin proceed to supply services from May 2025, TfL judge that the existent attack continues to connection a precocious performing and cost-effective Elizabeth enactment operation.”