The Fifteen Billion Pound Railway: Inside the Elizabeth Line

Sign language

Simulcast of BBC Two Northern Ireland in high definition

BBC Two Northern Ireland HD

The 15 Billion Pound Railway

Documentaries

Factual

Ten thousand engineers and construction workers race to complete Crossrail.

Countdown to Crossrail. The dedicated team racing against time to complete the Elizabeth Line. Battling with the ballooning budget and looming launch, can they keep London moving?

Inside the Elizabeth Line

BBC Two England

England

Simulcast of network BBC Two in high definition.

BBC Two HD

BBC Two Northern Ireland

Simulcast of BBC Two Wales in high definition

BBC Two Wales HD

Until 03/01/2009 BBC Two Wales (analogue) was known simply as BBC Two Wales. BBC Two Wales (digital) was BBC 2W. From 03/01/2009 BBC Two Wales schedules on both analogue and digital became identical

BBC Two Wales

Julian Barratt

Lee Reading

Carlo Massarella

David Dugan

Windfall Films Ltd

The 15 Billion Pound Railway: Inside the Elizabeth Line: Episode 2

Episode 2

BBC Two - The 15 Billion Pound Railway, Inside the Elizabeth Line, Episode 2

The grand opening of the Elizabeth line by the Queen finally takes place.

This episode charts the grand opening of the Elizabeth line as the Queen officially opens the railway – one of the most ambitious engineering feats since the time of Brunel.

We follow 83-year-old site manager Jim Forrest – one of the oldest engineers on the project. He joined the Whitechapel Station build in 2009 and has seen it from tunnel boring and concrete pouring to constructing the station steel works and vital fit-out works. In order to open the station, Jim and the team must ensure it’s safe in the event of a fire – learning the lessons of the 1987 King's Cross fire. They must conduct a crucial smoke trial on the platform to test the ventilation systems can extract huge amount of smoke should a fire break out. An overlooked detail in this phase could become a matter of life and death when the railway opens. 

Before any station on the line can open to the public, the railway must undergo a series of critical safety trials to judge whether Elizabeth line staff are ready to respond in the event of an emergency – from passengers falling sick on a train to the handling of a reported fire. 

We follow Lewis George and Rebecca Edwards, who are in charge of the trials and must coordinate the railway’s largest evacuation trial involving 900 volunteers as they’re rescued from a train in the tunnels and evacuated from Canary Wharf station – one of the largest central stations. If staff can’t evacuate passengers safely, the teams could face more delays to the opening of the railway.

The end of the film sees the Queen visit Paddington Station and goes behind the scenes as the grand opening day of the Elizabeth line finally arrives, attended by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, TFL commissioner Andy Byford, Crossrail CEO Mark Wild and more than 130,000 eager passengers and train enthusiasts jostling to board the first train services to depart. As the first train leaves Paddington, we check in with the men and women who helped build the line and featured across past series – station by station.

The 15 Billion Pound Railway: Inside the Elizabeth Line

BBC Two

Knowledge, drama, comedy and the arts for a broad adult audience.

BBC Two is a lively channel of depth and substance, carrying a range of knowledge-building programming complemented by great drama, comedy and arts.

How the fifteen-billion pound railway became the nineteen-billion pound Elizabeth line.

This final series charts the inside story of how the fifteen-billion pound railway became the nineteen-billion pound Elizabeth line.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The 15 Billion Pound Railway

Inside the Elizabeth Line

Episode 2

Contributors

Genres

Formats

Brand

Series

BBC Two Northern Ireland HD

About BBC Two