By TAKESHI OWADA/ Staff Writer
December 19, 2024 at 08:00 JST
An Elizabeth Line train (Source: Transport for London) (Provided by Tokyo Metro Co.)
A consortium that includes Tokyo Metro Co. has been awarded a contract to operate London’s Elizabeth Line that serves the capital and its suburbs.
It will be the first time for Tokyo Metro to participate in the operation of a railway outside Japan.
It will start operation of the Elizabeth Line from May 2025.
The consortium is 17.5 percent owned by both Tokyo Metro and Sumitomo Corp., and 65 percent by the British railway operator.
The amount of investment was not disclosed.
The contract with Transport for London, the capital's transportation authority, is expected to run for up to nine and a half years.
The 117-kilometer Elizabeth Line serving 41 stations opened in May 2022. It connects Heathrow Airport and the central and eastern parts of London.
The line carried about 210 million passengers in 2023. That figure is projected to surpass 250 million in 2030.
Tokyo Metro was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s top-tier Prime Market in October.
The subway operator is planning to diversify its business as a growth strategy.
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