The 15 Billion Pound Railway - Episode Guide

This series follows a team of more than 10,000 engineers and construction workers as they race to build a brand new railway under London - Crossrail - London's new Underground. Costing fifteen billion pounds, it's the biggest engineering project in Europe and a huge challenge to pull off. As they burrow the 42km of tunnels, engineers must battle to make sure that listed buildings don't crack, London Underground trains keep running, roads don't shut and the City stays in business. Crucially, they must drive one of their gigantic 1,000-tonne tunnel-boring machines through a tiny gap in the congested underbelly of Tottenham Court Road station without the passengers on the tube platforms below knowing they are there.

This episode follows engineers building London's brand new underground railway, Crossrail, as they take on a Great British obsession - building train tunnels underwater.

Linda Miller, an engineer more at home building space launch complexes at Cape Canaveral, battles to rebuild a Victorian tunnel under the Royal Docks in London's East End. Meanwhile, a British tunnelling dynasty - the Bermingham family - follow in the footsteps of the original father-son team of Marc and Isambard Kingdom Brunel to build a brand new tunnel under the River Thames.

This episode follows engineers building London's brand new underground railway, Crossrail, as they race to build ten new train stations across London.

A team battles to put together the giant jigsaw that will become a cathedral-sized station at Canary Wharf. It's so big, they have to build it in a dock and underwater. Its architect-designed roof is so complicated it comes in a kit of over 2,500 pieces. As engineers carve out the underground caverns that will become the new stations, they hit on some gruesome discoveries of London's past.

This series follows more than ten thousand engineers and construction workers as they race to complete the brand new railway directly underneath the city - Crossrail, London's new Underground. Costing fifteen billion pounds, it is the biggest engineering project in Europe. Linda Miller, an engineer more at home constructing space launch complexes, must build what will become Britain's busiest station - Farringdon - an underground structure longer than the Shard is tall. Linda and her team battle ancient fault lines, race to build emergency access tunnels to alleviate congestion and piece together a giant geometric jigsaw that will form a cathedral-sized station entrance. The episode ends with a very special visitor arriving on site to give the railway its new title.

This final episode follows the men and women racing to build London's brand new underground railway - the Elizabeth Line - in time for the first train launch in May 2017. Engineers must construct and fit out a new station at Paddington, erect a 130m-long great glass canopy to soar above the structure and plug directly into Brunel's original grade one listed station - a nerve-wracking feat. At Tottenham Court Road, workers are building underground platforms and concourses the size of an aircraft carrier in the heart of the world's busiest shopping district. The team must carefully remove enormous props that hold apart the station walls, as convoys of concrete trucks drive down Oxford Street where half a million shoppers and tourists visit, every day. In Derby, a father and son team - third and fourth generation train builders - race to construct 66 trains to ferry passengers across the 30 miles of Crossrail line. Every site and engineer must pull together as they race to deliver this new fifteen billion pound railway - one of Europe's largest construction projects - in time for the first trains roll out.

The first part of an exclusive series following the construction of Crossrail - one of Europe's largest projects and one of the most ambitious in Britain since the time of Brunel.

Final part of an exclusive series following the construction of Crossrail - one of Europe's largest projects and one of the most ambitious in Britain since the time of Brunel.

With exclusive access to Crossrail Ltd and Transport for London, this fourth and final chapter of the long-running documentary series follows the race to fix the railway's high-tech software and systems to launch the new Elizabeth Line in time for the Queen's platinum jubilee.

The 15 billion pound railway - now costing 19 billion and rising – stretches 120km across London in what has become an extraordinary construction project - one of the biggest in Europe and one of the most ambitious engineering feats in Britain since the time of Brunel.

For over ten years, cameras have followed the engineers, technicians and transport staff who are under pressure to deliver their section of the project, including construction fixes in the tunnels, safety checks of the stations and the testing the complex, bug-ridden train software, all in a bid to make it safe for passengers.

We follow 83-year-old site manager Jim Forrest – one of the oldest engineers on the project. He joined the Whitechapel Station build in 2009 and has seen it from tunnel boring and concrete pouring to constructing the station steel works and vital fit-out works. In order to open the station, Jim and the team must ensure it's safe in the event of a fire – learning the lessons of the 1987 King's Cross fire. They must conduct a crucial smoke trial on the platform to test the ventilation systems can extract huge amount of smoke should a fire break out. An overlooked detail in this phase could become a matter of life and death when the railway opens. 

Before any station on the line can open to the public, the railway must undergo a series of critical safety trials to judge whether Elizabeth line staff are ready to respond in the event of an emergency – from passengers falling sick on a train to the handling of a reported fire. 

We follow Lewis George and Rebecca Edwards, who are in charge of the trials and must coordinate the railway's largest evacuation trial involving 900 volunteers as they're rescued from a train in the tunnels and evacuated from Canary Wharf station – one of the largest central stations. If staff can't evacuate passengers safely, the teams could face more delays to the opening of the railway.

The end of the film sees the Queen visit Paddington Station and goes behind the scenes as the grand opening day of the Elizabeth line finally arrives, attended by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, TFL commissioner Andy Byford, Crossrail CEO Mark Wild and more than 130,000 eager passengers and train enthusiasts jostling to board the first train services to depart. As the first train leaves Paddington, we check in with the men and women who helped build the line and featured across past series – station by station.