As reported by ICE London organizer Clarion Gaming on Thursday, central London will be a 12-minute train ride away from the renowned expo following the opening of the £18.7 billion ($23.5 billion) high-speed train Elizabeth Line. Thus, the travel experience for both domestic and international visitors attending February’s edition of ICE London and iGB Affiliate London will be significantly improved.
The Elizabeth Line’s opening took place on May 24. In addition to reducing journey times from central London to ExCeL to just 12-minutes, it is also set to lower the Heathrow-ExCel journey time. The door-to-door travel time from London Heathrow, a major international hub used by many ICE/iGB international show visitors, will be completed by Autumn 2022 and comprise a single uninterrupted train journey of 43 minutes.
London Stanstead airport will be a 54-minute train journey with London Luton taking 34 minutes. The Elizabeth Line will feature 24 trains per hour giving it a capacity to carry more than half a million passengers a day.
Stuart Hunter, Managing Director, Clarion Gaming
In an official press release, Stuart Hunter, Managing Director, Clarion Gaming said: “With the opening of the Elizabeth Line, whose color scheme just happens to be the ICE purple, ExCeL London has to be the world’s most connected event venue boasting two DLR stops, the new mainline station, an airport, water taxis and even a cable car!”
“The ease and speed of the journey will improve the visitor experience with the significant time savings leading to an increase in opportunities for networking, learning and business,” Hunter added. “Giving buyers more time to be in the venue will undoubtedly deliver enhanced ROI and I expect an even higher percentage of C-Suite delegates to attend our world class events”.
The executive described the opening of the Elizabeth Line as “a game-changer” on many different levels, not least the access it provides to many hundreds of central London hotels which are now a 12-minute journey from ExCeL, courtesy of the new state of the art, high-speed trains.
“This major development coincides with the return of the entire gaming industry to ICE in 2023 ensuring that next February’s edition will be amongst the most memorable in the history of this major international event”, Hunter concluded.
Since reopening in the summer of 2021, ExCeL has welcomed over 1.5 million visitors and has invested in a 25,000sqm expansion programme to further enhance its world-class facilities.
