The Elizabeth line came to the rescue of thousands of commuters determined to get in and out of central London despite the Tube strike.
Regular services were running on the £20bn line, which opened less than a month ago, between Abbey Wood and Paddington, from 7am.
Transport for London used managers and volunteers to open the four London Underground-run stations on the central section of the Elizabeth line - Tottenham Court Road, Whitechapel, Farringdon and Liverpool Street.
The Elizabeth line train drivers are employed by a contractor, MTR, rather than London Underground - meaning they were not drawn into the strike, which involved the RMT and Unite unions.
Andy Lord, TfL’s chief operating officer, told the Standard: “We hugely apologise to everybody who has been disrupted, but the Elizabeth line has been operating a good service on its central section since about 7am.
“As we saw with the strikes on June 6, it creates a new option for customer we have not had before. The trains are so big they can literally swallow people up.”
However, services on the Elizabeth line will end at 7pm on Tuesday, with passengers advised to complete their journeys an hour earlier if possible.
There were also services on the line’s eastern and western branches from Liverpool Street and Paddington but these were drawing to a hat around 4pm.
This is because the two branches were affected by the national rail strike.
More than two million journeys have already been undertaken on the line which has wowed Londoners despite opening almost four years late.
Mr Lord said the “vast majority” of Tube stations had been forced to close, though a “very limited” shuttle service was running at the eastern and western ends of the Central line, at the northern end of the Northern line and on the eastern end of the District line.
Bank station was open to passengers using the DLR.
Efforts to run more services on other above ground Tube lines were hampered where tracks were shared with Network Rail and thus affected by the national rail strike, he said. “We are operating pretty much what we anticipated,” Mr Lord said.
Tuesday’s Tube strike is the fourth network-wide shutdown since March.
Further strikes are likely but no new dates have been announced. More national rail strikes are planned on Thursday and Saturday.
