Elizabeth line: Bond Street station gets opening date

The opening date for the Elizabeth line at Bond Street station has been revealed.

The central London station will begin taking passengers from 24 October, subject to final approvals, Transport for London (TfL) said.

It will provide a new link to the West End with entrances at Hanover Square and Davies Street.

It will also relieve congestion at Oxford Circus station and make the area more accessible with step-free access.

Train services will run every five minutes to begin with and the station will be able to accommodate nearly 140,000 people a day, contributing to an overall station capacity of 225,000 across the Jubilee, Central and Elizabeth lines.

There will be no service on Sunday 30 October. But from Sunday 6 November trains will run every three to four minutes, seven days a week.

From that date passengers heading for the West End from Heathrow, Reading and Shenfield will be able to get a direct train to Bond Street without having to change at Paddington or Liverpool Street.

Andy Byford, London's transport commissioner, said it will be the "jewel in the crown of the West End's transport provision".

He added: "It is truly spectacular and will provide a highly significant new link to one of the busiest shopping districts in the UK, enabling even further connectivity to jobs and leisure for people across London and the South East."

The station will contain two ticket halls and elevators to allow step-free access.

The station's Hanover Square entrance leads into Medici Courtyard which will become the first public courtyard to open in Mayfair for more than a century, TfL said.

The line - which was named in Queen Elizabeth II's honour - was visited by the late sovereign in 2016 and again in May where she unveiled a plaque to mark its opening.

Transport Minister Katherine Fletcher said that since the line opened there had been more than 11 million journeys and 55,000 jobs created.

Bond Street Crossrail station has been a real problem and plagued with delays but now we have an opening date.

TfL said it would open in the autumn and 24 October qualifies as that. Finally all the stations will be open.

Certainly businesses in the West End will welcome the news. They have struggled through the pandemic and with the cost of living crisis - and what they badly need is footfall.

The final stages of the Elizabeth line are yet to happen. More through routes will open on November 6, with more trains next year.

Very late and over budget but then the project will finally be complete.

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