The Elizabeth line could be transformative for London – here’s how

London needs more investment like that of the new Underground line, writes Hamish McRae

Tunnel vision: the Elizabeth line at Liverpool Street (Simon Calder)

The Elizabeth line, the new London’s east-west metro service that we called Crossrail, finally opened on Tuesday. It is three years late, cost at least £18.9bn, some £4bn over budget, and arguably – given the fall in commuting post-pandemic – is no longer really needed.

And yet, having ridden on it a few hours after it opened, I can report that it is really nice. It is a typical model of the urban railway systems that are being built in giant cities all around the world, and a top-end version at that. Not sure it is worth queuing through the night to ride on, but it makes travelling across London a much more pleasant experience.

And there is the nub of the case for investing in transport in urban areas. We don’t yet know how work patterns will change over the next few decades. Common sense would suggest some of the changes forced on us by the pandemic will last. The idea that the home would become a factory and the office a club was first put forward by Charles Handy, the management guru, back in the 1990s. He explained: “Organisations do need a hub, a place to call home. But [in future] it will look much more like a club,” he said. It would be a place for employees to meet and converse rather than sit at a desk.