Crossrail sees 460k journeys made on day one

The first day of public services on the Elizabeth line saw 460,000 journeys according to Transport for London.

Yours truly added a few to that number as the line saw people flock to sample services.

Abbey Wood saw long queues for the first train and was busy throughout the day. It’ll only get busier as various new developments in the area complete.

Many homes have been demolished nearby in Thamesmead over the past decade this the local population is probably lower now than when construction on the line begun. That won’t be the case for long.

I recently took at look at over 500 homes in Thamesmead at Southmere Village. That post can be seen here.

One thing I did note was cars parking on paving around the station including areas that saw millions spent on public realm upgrades. Local authorities will need to be in top of that. The borough boundary between Bexley and Greenwich runs past the station. Parking was often a mess at the old station.

Woolwich also saw much usage throughout the day and that’s where Greenwich council leaders – past and present – choose to visit, where they were joined by the Mayor.

Much of my time was spent at Custom House, given it’d likely be low down many people’s lists on day one and they’d be many photos taken at the sexier stations by others.

It was doing good business and again there was again evidence of development and new housing in the area, alongside post war housing set for demolition and rebuild.

The station offers excellent interchange with the DLR.

I also popped to other stations but they’ve been covered widely in various areas so not much time simply showing the same old photos. A follow-up post will look in more detail at areas around stations and I’ll throw a few in of, say, Canary Wharf.

Aside from Crossrail, the last week has seen tube and bus use in London continue to rise and is now more than 80 per cent of 2020 levels.

That takes us back to around 2015 levels. The battle now is to prevent heavy government cuts continuing across public transport as the Treasury wields the axe.