TfL Elizabeth line: Watch Londoners on 'pet peeves' and praise for rail service

It’s been a success story on the whole, but the Elizabeth line has certainly had its challenges. 

Making use of Network Rail infrastructure, suffers occasions from significant disruption for reasons beyond Transport for London's (TfL) control, as well as for reasons within its remit. Figures in December revealed alarming numbers of cancellations.

But for many commuters it remains a valuable addition to TfL’s network, connecting Reading and Heathrow in the west with Shenfiedl and Abbey Wood in the east.

We asked Londoners how they feel about the Elizabeth line at the beginning of 2024.

Fred told us: “So, space wise, in terms of carriage length and everything, I think it’s really nice.

"One of my biggest pet peeves about it though is some of the announcements are very very poor. I don’t feel they’re regular enough. On my commute, I go back to west London, Ealing Broadway way. More often than not, you’ll get announcements cut off. For me as a native English speaker, I don’t think that’s a problem, but it goes to Heathrow, right. There’s a lot of foreigners, travellers, that will be on those trains listening out for announcements.

“Hearing something like ‘please note that Oyster Card is not accepted’ - that’s not great. So, I would really appreciate better signage on the line itself. In terms of times and delays, they happen on every line, and I feel like since we’ve all come back from the pandemic every Tube line is suffering, so I don’t think it’s necessarily worse than all the others.” 

Ben said: “It’s definitely a lot quieter, especially coming from living up north London, going through Camden - it’s quite loud on the Northern Line. [The Elizabeth line] is great. It’s clean, it’s fast, it’s open - don’t feel too congested.” 

Diana said she likes it because of its easy connection to east London.  

“Yes, I do enjoy it because it’s the only line I take, personally, from work because I live in Canary Wharf,” she said. “So from east London it’s an easy connection to here. It’s normally the least packed. It’s a bit more on the expensive side, but it’s the only one I use anyway.” 

Helen said: “I love it in theory, but I think I’ve had a delay happen every week that I’ve used it since like last November, so it could be better.” 

Vishnu said: “For the length, it is good to travel with the family as well and I think having the surveillance in the train, we can go easily without hesitating about anything.” 

Tony told LondonWorld he thinks the Elizabeth Line was a good investment. 

“I use it to go down to Shenfield, up to Paddington, so yeah it’s money well spent.”