One of the last public duties the late Queen Elizabeth undertook was to open the new Elizabeth Line in May 2022. A new route spanning 73 miles from Shenfield in Essex to Reading in Berkshire, this huge engineering project had cost 18.8 billion pounds. Huge boring machines had moved 7 million tonnes of earth from under London and the route had to snake around to avoid the foundations of skyscrapers, sewers, and other tunnels as it went under existing underground lines – what a feat of engineering!
I first travelled on the Elizabeth line on a very hot day in August 22 and was impressed by the air-conditioning which made the journey much more comfortable than it would have been on the stifling older underground trains, taking me from Liverpool Street to Paddington in half the time the Circle line takes. Another impressive feature is the double layer of doors with a glass wall separating platform and train at some of the stops. Built in an age when facilities for the disabled are planned for, there is good provision of lifts and escalators, meaning people in wheelchairs or with walking aids are catered for.
My biggest adventure on the Elizabeth line happened in December 2024 when I used the line to travel from Liverpool Street to Heathrow airport in order to take the plane to Australia to spend Christmas with my daughter and family. I was told it would be a straightforward route and so it was.
It turned out to be quite a memorable journey however although the Elizabeth line train ran reliably and got me to the Heathrow Terminal 2 stop on time. The reason that I remember it so well is that it was late on a December afternoon and Storm Darragh was making its presence felt. At first the Elizabeth line train from Liverpool Street is travelling deep underground but as it gets out to West London it comes out into the open, and wind and squally rain were beating on the windows of the train. The afternoon darkness was a reminder we were in the low of the year and my apprehension about my flights to Australia grew. Would the plane be able to take off in such a storm and, if it did, would the turbulence be awful? People around me who were en route to the airport looked worried too and the modern, ground breaking train system i had travelled on and appreciated on several occasions became a place of anxiety and low spirits as we moved west towards Heathrow.
It is in times like this that, as Christians, we appreciate the great privilege of prayer. In the middle of a crowded train, I could bring my apprehension and fears to a God who listens and knows our needs before we even ask. The storm did not subside, but thankfully the plane did take off and I was able to remain calm during the turbulence caused by the storm.
Prayer:
We thank you Lord that we can talk to you in any situation and can be honest about our fears and doubts. You miraculously brought calm to the stormy sea of Galilee and you can bring calm to our lives as we face challenging situations.