Connecting London: The Impact of the Elizabeth Line on Accessibility and Spatial Equity

In London, where the majority of employment opportunities are concentrated in the City of Londonand Canary Wharf, the public transport system plays a key role in connecting people to these jobs. Withthe opening of the Elizabeth Line in May 2022, parts of East and West London have seen improvedtravel times to these employment hubs. In this paper, we compare spatial accessibility to employmentopportunities before and after this change and assess the spatial equity effects. Using the r5r packagefor R, we calculate a gravity-based opportunity metric based on public transport travel times. Wesubsequently evaluate the spatial equity of changes in job accessibility by profiling areas against socio-economic and socio-demographic characteristics, specifically socio-economic deprivation, share ofhouseholds with access to a private vehicle, proportion of BAME residents, and unemployment ratestructure.