London’s new Elizabeth Line is open – and it’s being run by Hong Kong’s MTR
- London’s long-delayed Crossrail opened this week, cutting journey times with new, spacious trains
- MTR Corporation CEO said the US$24 billion rail line signifies a ‘new era of travel in London’
Hong Kong rail giant MTR Corporation is operating London’s newest train line, which finally opened this week four years behind schedule.
The Elizabeth Line, named after Queen Elizabeth, is a mixed overground and underground railway that’s meant to slash journey times across London from Shenfield in the east to Reading in the west. Its estimated final cost could be about £19 billion (US$24 billion).
MTR Elizabeth line is a wholly owned subsidiary of MTR Corporation, which will run the line and manage 28 of its stations. It’s something passengers might not know, as the operator was barely mentioned in UK press reports around Tuesday’s opening
Nor was MTR Corporation highlighted a week before during a visit by the queen and Prime Minister Boris Johnson to Paddington Station, one of dozens of stops on the route.
Instead, Johnson was reported to have said that the Elizabeth Line should inspire people to go back to work at offices, and to stop them eating “cheese and houmous” at home.
Transport for London said its publicity for the Elizabeth Line was meant to highlight the new route.
“We’ve always mentioned MTR in all the press releases, but the focus was purely on the Elizabeth line, rather than them as the operator – it wasn’t intentional,” said a spokesperson for Transport for London.
“We work really close with MTR – it’s a big thing for London and we are into collaborative working, and we certainly didn’t want to take the spotlight off them.”
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The Elizabeth Line is the first addition to the UK capital’s tube network since 1979. UK-made trains 200 metres long can carry 1,500 passengers.
“I love the design of the station,” said a beaming 9-year old Rubina Begum, whose journey from her home in Canary Wharf to her school in Whitechapel has been slashed from 40 minutes to four with the new line.
Once fully operational, the more than 100km (60-mile) line will run from Shenfield in the east to the commuter town of Reading in the west.
London boasts the world’s oldest subway, dating back to 1863, but many of the old lines and trains are cramped and showing their age.
Elizabeth Line trains are fully air-conditioned and offer Wi-fi in carriages and at stations. When it is fully operational in the autumn it will cut journeys from Heathrow airport to central London by half, with easy access to the city’s three other airports.
Simon Cheng Man-kit, a Hongkonger who was at one point held by authorities in mainland China, and now stays in London, wondered if passenger data would remain secure in the UK.
“We hope all data of passengers in the UK shall be kept responsibly so as not to trigger any fear of potential surveillance,” Cheng said.
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Cheng is a former British consulate employee in Hong Kong who was held in Chinese custody for 15 days in August 2019. He’s a pro-democracy activist who now works for the advocacy group Hongkongers in Britain.
There isn’t a specific data protection clause in the 2014 contract between MTR Corporation and Transport for London. However, Transport for London’s spokesperson said that it was responsible for all ticketing operations, including tapping in and out.
MTR Elizabeth Line’s spokesperson said all customer information is handled by Transport for London.
A trade union leader urged the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan to weigh in on data issues, if there were any.
“Data relating to the operation of the Elizabeth Line, or its staff, should be protected and not be exported to third parties, never mind the repressive Chinese state,” Manuel Cortes, general secretary of the TSSA railway workers union, told South China Morning Post. “The mayor of London must make sure this is the case.”
MTR Corporation, which will operate the trains and 28 of the Elizabeth Line stations, has quietly been involved in London’s transport networks for years.
It was the first operator of the last new addition to London’s rail network: the orange London Overground line, which opened in 2007 and serves large parts of the city’s east and south.
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The company won the £1.4 billion contract for the Elizabeth Line, then called Crossrail, in 2014. That was at the height of the UK’s “Golden Era” with China and before tensions between the two countries worsened over a number of issues, including the national security law, which was imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing in 2020.
“We are excited to witness and take part in the commencement of Elizabeth Line service, which signifies a new era of travel in London,” MTR Corporation CEO Jacob Kam Chak-pui told Nikkei Asia this week.
“With our ample experience on railway operations, we are committed to delivering the highest standards of operational efficiency and reliability and the best in customer service for passengers in London.”
