Network Rail reveals plan to tackle Elizabeth line service issues
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said recent performance on the Elizabeth line has been ‘below the high standards set’
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Your support makes all the difference.Network Rail has announced a plan to address issues on the Elizabeth line west of Paddington.
The plan follows a meeting with Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, who said the issues over the past six months were “not acceptable”.
Nearly £140 million will be allocated from existing budgets to tackle the issues, with the majority set aside from Network Rail’s CP7 budgets from 2024 to 2029, the mayor’s office said in a statement.
No additional taxpayer funding has been requested, it added.
Work will begin immediately to stabilise the network, while the following 12 months will see longer-term improvement.
Mr Khan said recent performance on the Elizabeth line has been “below the high standards set”.
“The Elizabeth line has been transformational, seeing well over 4.5 million journeys every week, but it’s clear that the recent performance on the Elizabeth line has been below the high standards set when the railway was opened,” he said.
“I have been absolutely clear with Network Rail, MTR (the line operators) and TfL that the issues we have seen over the last six months are not acceptable.
“I am pleased that they have brought forward a comprehensive plan to resolve the problems on the line, and I will continue to hold them to account.”
Services to the line were affected again on Monday with a landslip between Twyford and Reading impacting routes to and from London Paddington.
In December thousands of commuters were subjected to a hellish ordeal after damage to overhead wires in west London brought Elizabeth line services to a halt.
The delay was compared to a wartime evacuation, with passengers taking to social media to share pictures of them sitting in darkness and lugging baggage along train tracks.
Footage and images shared on social media showed passengers sat in pitch black train carriages and lugging heavy suitcases along tracks after disembarking a train.
Two people were injured during the blackout and a man was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault by the British Transport Police (BTP).
London TravelWatch, a public transport watchdog, called for a full investigation into the “nightmare journeys” that passengers endured as they were left with a “lack of communication and slow response time”