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The Elizabeth line is inching closer and closer toward reality and a new exhibition at London Transport Museum will reveal spoilers regarding the look and feel of the newest tube line.
Crossrail has been scraping and tunneling miles of track under London since 2009 and new exhibition 'The design line: stations, art and public space on London’s newest railway' will be a chance to see the plans before the line opens in December 2018.
We’ve had a sneaky look and can reveal the Lizzy line will have the sleekness of the Jubilee line (the other track named after Her Maj).
All 40 stations will share some design features including timber benches and floor-to-ceiling platform screens (like in Canary Wharf). Award-winning artists have been set loose on some of the stations and their pieces will incorporate local features; Soho nightclubs will influence elements of Tottenham Court Road and a bronze façade in Woolwich will honour the nearby forge.
Visitors to the exhibition can pretend to wait for a tube on a bench prototype, touch curved tunnel cladding and glimpse the hand-painted scale model of the new Elizabeth line train.
There’s also a chance to design and build your own mini station, though we have a suspicion the ‘young engineers’ it’s aimed at is not 18-24 year-olds…
One important question is not answered – we’re talking upholstery. Will the Queen’s face be incorporated in the design? And if so, does that mean we get to sit on Lizzie’s face?
'The Design Line: stations, art and public space on London’s newest railway' is on at the London Transport Museum, Covent Garden Piazza, WC2E 7BB.
Find more about the exhibition here.