The Elizabeth line has enjoyed a £29m fares income bonanza due to record passenger numbers, it was revealed on Wednesday.
But the positive state of its finances – alongside a prediction that it will break even this year – came as line managers belonging to the TSSA union announced they would strike on May 24 in an unresolved pay battle.
This threatens to close the central section of the £20bn line, between Paddington and Abbey Wood, and embarrass Mayor Sadiq Khan and Transport for London as the walkout falls on the first anniversary of its opening.
Latest figures from TfL show the Elizabeth line is carrying 3.5m passengers a week – and at times almost four million.
The popularity of the Elizabeth line, which was previously known as Crossrail, has helped to restore the fortunes of the UK railways.
Latest Government data shows that in April passenger numbers were betweek 88 per cent and 106 per cent of pre-pandemic levels - with the Elizabeth line boosting weekday numbers.
The Department for Transport’s monthly report on domestic travel states: “Public transport modes (National Rail, buses and TfL) usage increased at a slower rate and have generally remained below pre-Covid levels, until recently, when national rail usage exceeded pre-covid levels on weekdays on multiple occasions in April 2023, although this includes the impact of Crossrail services.”
A report to TfL’s Elizabeth line committee said there were two million more journeys than predicted on the line in its first 10 months.
As a result, fares income was £29m above an already revised target. This was also a consequence of passengers making longer journeys after the start of “through running” of trains from Heathrow, Reading and Shenfield into central London on November 6.
The line is currently the fourth most reliable in the country, with 92.4 per cent of trains on time - behind Merseyrail, Greater Anglia and London Overground, and well ahead of the national average of 86.3 per cent.
But it continues to suffer reliability issues due to a “significant” number of points failures on the Network Rail tracks west of Paddington.
There are also issues with the £1bn fleet of trains that a new software upload will look to resolve ahead of the final phase of the line’s opening being completed on May 21, when direct trains linking Shenfield and Heathrow will start running.
The May 21 changes will also see the number of peak hour trains in central London increase from 22 to 24 an hour.
TfL said that customer satisfaction on the line was 82 out of 100 – the highest score across all TfL modes.
