Breakthrough: Crossrail's Tunnelling Story

There’s a huge force at work beneath our city. Eight gigantic 1,000 tonne, 150 metre long cylindrical ladies (Phyllis, Ada, Elizabeth, Victoria, Mary, Sophia, Jessica and Ellie) are currently at work under London and the surrounding areas, thrusting their way from one side of the capital to the other. Phyllis and co aren’t  real women; they're the names that have been given to the giant machines operated by the tunnel gangs creating the new Crossrail network. When completed (parts will be ready by May 2015 but the full system won’t be in action until 2019), the route will link 40 stations from Reading in the west to Shenfield in the east including Heathrow, Paddington, Tottenham Court Road and Canary Wharf. In the meantime, Londoners can discover parts of London’s subterranean landscape in a new exhibition at the London Transport Museum. Visitors can get an idea of the scale of the tunnels in a five meter-high walk-through installation, learn about the process of building a tunnel, play interactive tunnelling games and hear first-hand experiences of those who work underground. Proving that boring doesn’t have to be boring.