Moore described the nearly empty £18.33 billion ($23.84 billion) project as an “alternative universe” before likening the transition between the new Elizabeth line and older Central Underground to a scene from (attempted architecture critic) Lewis Caroll’s Alice in Wonderland. 

The full line is expected to be complete by 2023. Hopes were for the originally planned construction to end in 2018, before being pushed back three separate times owing to the pandemic and a variety of other causes. The expansion will eventually feature a motley slate of new stations from Hawkins\Brown and other big-name firms, but Moore doesn’t expect the enormous feat to be repeated any time soon, given the rise of certain ascendant technologies in the role of city planning.

“It can take a generation, in other words, to make something such as this happen. Since we are in a climate emergency, whatever environmental benefits may come from further such splurges on public transport – which incur upfront carbon and energy costs in their construction – may now come too late. Some gurus of mobility argue that driverless electric cars, by using road space efficiently and removing the environmental problems of petrol and diesel, will eventually push urban railways towards obsolescence.”