The opening of Crossrail, also known as the Elizabeth Line, has finally been confirmed after nearly four years of delays.
Transport chiefs say the line will open on May 24.
It will run from Shenfield in Essex in the east all the way to Reading in the west, enormously expanding the London Tube map.
On its way it will stop at destinations including Stratford, Tottenham Court Road and Paddington, with separate routes branching off to Canary Wharf and Heathrow.
The official Crossrail account tweeted: "OPENING SOON: Some exciting news about the opening of the #Elizabethline. London’s newest railway will open on Tuesday 24 May 2022."
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The Queen herself unveiled the purple roundel that has come to signify the line at the under-construction station at Bond Street in February 2016.
Project work started in 2009, three years before tunnelling operations beneath London began in 2012.
Services for the Crossrail route were supposed to open in 2018 with trains running from London Paddington to Abbey Wood.
However, the project has suffered a chain of delays that hindered any sight of its opening.
The pandemic, planning pushbacks and overspending all contributed to the line's opening date being delayed until this month.
It is hoped that the entire line with all of its branches will be open by the summer of 2023, with 24 trains an hour running.
Phase one of the rollout will introduce ten new Elizabeth Line stations in central London from Abbey Wood to Paddington.
The second phase is scheduled to begin in the autumn and will integrate services from the east and west into the new central tunnels and stations.
This will enable trips from Reading and Heathrow through to Abbey Wood, and from Shenfield through to Paddington.
Earlier this year Crossrail chief executive Mark Wild told the TfL board that the project had had a good few months.
He said that “we exited Christmas with pretty much the railway very near to the configuration – not quite- but very near the configuration to accept customers”.
Mr Wild added that, with the exception of Bond Street, Elizabeth Line stations are “now ready for revenue service”.
People with the Citymapper app can now use it to find out how much of their journey time they could shave off thanks to the Elizabeth Line.
