West Kensington station was closed on Tuesday
(Picture: Gareth Richman)Tube lines have suffered severe delays causing another “chaotic” evening rush hour on Elizabeth line opening day.
Station closures and delays were reported on the Circle, District, Overground, Jubilee and Hammersmith & City lines.
Severe delays on the Circle and District lines were due to signal failures around Stepney Green with a faulty train reported at Westminster causing another blockage on the Jubilee line.
Well, that's my plan to go to Soho via Crossrail stuffed: the District Line is completely scuppered, so I can't get to Paddington. The tired old Piccadilly line it is ...
— Kate Bevan 🇺🇦 (@katebevan) May 24, 2022
One commuter complained on Twitter: “Been waiting half an hour now at Hornchurch for a District Line train. It’s nice that the Queen Elizabeth line is finally open, but it’s a shame TfL and Sadiq Khan can’t run the tube network properly to save their lives.”
Another added: “Chaotic tube journey home. Reduced services on District line. It’s packed with sweaty people. This kid has been non-stop crying at the top of his lungs - he’s not set off another kid. Two screaming children on an overcrowded sweaty tube. I want to join their crying session.”
It came as Sadiq Khan was on hand to welcome some of the 130,000 people travelling on London’s £18.9 billion Elizabeth line in the first few hours of operation.
Writing in this today’s Standard he said: “This is a landmark moment in the history of our public transport system and a game-changer for Londoners and visitors to our capital.
“The Elizabeth line will revolutionise travel across London — reducing journey times, improving accessibility with spacious new stations and state-of-the-art, air-conditioned trains, and boosting rail capacity in central London by 10 per cent — the largest single increase for more than 70 years.”
