Tuesday, 24th May 2022 at 4:25pmThe Elizabeth Line Goes Live

Today marks the launch of the much anticipated Elizabeth Line – the new Crossrail service which connects Berkshire and Essex via central London.

After numerous delays and a great deal of controversy surrounding the project’s ever-expanding budget, the line promises faster, convenient and accessible travel for passengers in and around the capital. For brands, however, this morning’s grand opening represents a new era for ad-orientated travel as TfL and Global unveil 329 cutting edge advertising sites along the 62 mile route – the network’s largest digital advertising asset launch to date.

In an article released by Crossrail, the line’s central stations, among which are Paddington, Liverpool Street, Canary Wharf and Tottenham Court Road, are said to have been ‘built with advertising embedded in their design’. Just a quick overview of the digital assets is evidence enough of this.

Each of the 10 new stations boast seven pairs of full motion enabled Digital Ribbons and 16 new-format Digital runways comprising 234 platform edge screens. In addition to this, four ultra-HD Digital Gateway screens have been installed – one measuring 28m² above the escalators at Tottenham Court Road – as well as 32 digital billboards.

It is estimated that the Elizabeth Line will host up to 200 million passengers a year, offering huge amounts of exposure for brands who choose to join Google, Schweppes, Reed.co.uk, Sage and MoneySuperMarket in taking advantage of this opportunity.

For Chris Reader, Head of Commercial Media at Transport for London, ‘this is the most significant addition to London’s transport network in a generation […] offering brands yet another exciting opportunity to reach new and existing audiences.’ With a range of formats available, we are excited to see how advertisers will use our new assets to push the boundaries of creativity and innovation with their campaigns.’

Just how big an impact the Elizabeth Line’s state of the art advertising platform will have is unknown but it won’t be long before marketers have access to the data – and you best believe we’ll be here to report on it when they do.

The Elizabeth Line is now available to travel on between Abbey Wood and Paddington.