Crossrail is much more than a new Tube line. It’s a fundamental, now and forever reshaping of what it means to live, work in or visit London, a reconstruction of the city’s geography that will shrink time for millions of us and become a core part of our lives. That’s why its opening day will be a far bigger moment for London than the passing joy of the 2012 Olympics. To be fair it’s cost a lot more than the Olympics, and taken longer, too.
But the wait is over. At 6.30am on Tuesday, May 24 — in time for the platinum jubilee — the first sleek trains, almost double the length of the ones now on the Tube, set off from Paddington in the west and Abbey Wood in the east.
