London's Elizabeth Line gets new operator as Chinese firm loses contract
Transport for London picks Tokyo Metro joint venture to run Elizabeth Line instead of Chinese state-owned MTR. The change comes as Western countries re-think their business ties with China
Sadiq Khan made a big-time decision about Londons Elizabeth Line: its getting rid of its Chinese operator. The new deal (which starts in may-2025) puts a team of Tokyo Metro Go-Ahead and Sumitomo in charge
Back in twenty-fourteen Boris Johnson - who was running London then - picked MTR to run things; that was when UK-China relations were super-good. MTR which is mostly owned by China runs Hong Kongs trains but now its losing both the Elizabeth Line and its South Western Railway deal
The switch-up comes as the UK changes its China approach. Sir Keir Starmer just met Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the G20 meet-up in Brazil; he wants to find a new way to work with Beijing
The Elizabeth Line which started running about two years ago (it was late by 4 years) is now super-important for UK rail - its got like one-sixth of all UK train trips. It goes from Reading to Shenfield crossing right through London
The winning group beat out some other big names:
- Arriva tried to get it
- FirstGroup-Keolis wanted in
- MTR wanted to keep running it
Miguel Parras from Go-Ahead says: “Were gonna use what we know from UK and world-wide train stuff to help London. We want the same things as TfL - getting people around safe quick and happy“
Union folks arent too happy though - they wanted to drop private companies running things and werent pleased when MTR sent £38m back to its Chinese owners last month
