The £18.8 billion Elizabeth line has finally opened to the public after multiple delays

The Elizabeth line has finally been opened to the public!The £18.8 billion railway was meant to start running in December 2018, however the project had multiple delays.Speaking about the line contraction, the mayor of London Sadiq Khan told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I've met this morning people from Hong Kong, from the Netherlands, from Germany, from America, who are looking at us with envy, as we embark upon this recovery, this national recovery."We have this amazing new infrastructure in our capital city."Khan also opened up about the line being years late and over budget.He said: "There's got to be proper accountability and proper oversight, somebody responsible for the construction.

"Also one of the things we've learned is this is a very complex railway system, there are three separate signalling systems, we need simplicity when it comes to High Speed 2."

Khan added: "We need to make sure the institutional knowledge we learned from Crossrail goes into High Speed 2, rather than a delay before the major construction goes further."

Despite only being its first day, the line platforms were evacuated today due to a fire alarm. However, they have since reopened.

Taking to Twitter, one person said:"Fantastic journey on #Elizabeth line. Arrived at Paddington just as station was being evacuated but this must just be teething problems. Can't wait for Bond Street to be open as closer to the office."

Another wrote: "At least the process of evacuation works! Good practice and thankfully it was a false alarm!"