It would be highly appropriate, given both the troubles opening the line has had and the shameless sycophancy of naming it after her, for her to be unable to attend and send Charles instead.
Well Victoria didn't open the Victoria line, and I don't think she was present at any of the several Victoria station openings while she was alive.
Royalty and politicians should stay well away from it, let one of the people who built the thing open it.
Hope they still got their hard hats, given some people might wish to hang them out to dry...
Given the relative timings (her death and the line opening) it would have been one hell of a shock if Victoria had, lol....
Yes many many people like these grafted and any one (or more) of them would be fitting to open it.
Unfortunately the opening will be taking place during a period of Westminster Government and Mayor of London being at loggerheads - might get a TfL organised opening ceremony with the Mayor and a DfT orgainised ceremony with Johnson & Shapps (though this might take place many years after the actual opening given how long DfT take to do anything)!
And that is one of the reasons for having a Monarchy. Let one random person drawn from a hat open it and the other few thousand all feel that their contributions have been overlooked or passed over to the winner of a raffle. You get her Majesty to do it not only because she is the Head of State, not a jointer or packer. And she has had a lifetime of practice of not fluffing her lines. I just hope she is fit and well enough to attend the ceremony herself. If every duty currently performed by a Royal was replaced by a random selection algorithm the public would quickly lost interest in all ceremonies and any pomp and circumstance would fall away to nothing.
This is OT, but I've heard some very dodgy justifications for Royalty and this takes the biscuit by a country mile. You have a monarchy purely to open railway stations so that the workforce doesn't feel overlooked? A lifetime's practice of doing precisely as she's told to by the compere, with everything rehearsed to the nth degree beforehand so there's nothing for her to fluff up?
The strength of having monarchy is that the Queen is beholden to no one - no 'special' friends, large corporate donors, protest groups or anyone. She acts in the best interests of the country or Commonwealth and no-one else.
No, I didn't say that was the <only> reason for having a monarchy. I said that as Head of State the monarch has a symbolic presence that far outweighs the winner of a raffle. Don't try and use hyperbole - stick to what I said. Your lifetime's practice comment suggests you think I am in some way applauding some amazing skill the QUeen has rather than just recognising her experience? The ROyal Family's role is largely ceremonial anyway. They represent all of us, and that includes all the taxpayers who paid for it and those who planned, designed or promoted it not just a faction involved in its construction.
Indeed. Although I don’t much care for the name of the new railway, it really ought to have just been Crossrail.
The irony being though, that even when open soon....it's anything but 'crossrail'. Maybe it will finally get that title when you are able to travel from Reading to Shenfield without changing.
That wouldn't work for the TfL tube line naming convention 'x Line' - "Crossrail Line" doesn't really work.
But it isn’t a tube line it’s a National Rail service. They don’t have the “Overground Line” or “Thameslink Line”
It’s not a line, though! Crossrail is no different to Thameslink for example.
I'm sure Sadiq and Johnson would force one through, just so they can play the contest of who has the biggest ego.
