Sorry, Peggy, you just don’t cut it

TV soap icons Peggy Mitchell and Pat Butcher were considered as names but rejected. Songstresses Gracie Field and Vera Lynn also failed at the final hurdle.

Instead, the first TBM to launch has been named Phyllis after Phyllis Pearsall (below) who created the London A-Z.  She walked 23,000 streets and a total of 3,000 miles to compile the map. She died in 1996, aged 90.

The second tunnel boring machine will be named Ada after Ada Lovelace (1815-1852) who was one of the earliest computer scientists. Daughter of Lord Byron, she worked with Charles Babbage on his "analytical engine", and is regarded by some as having written the first computer program.

Over the next three years, eight tunnel boring machines will construct a total of 21km (13 miles) of twin-bore tunnel under the capital. The Crossrail route will pass through 37 stations and run 118 km (73 miles) from Maidenhead and Heathrow in the west, to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east.

Crossrail chief executive Andrew Wolstenholme said: “The first tunnel boring machine will shortly get underway on its journey from Royal Oak to Farringdon via Paddington, Bond Street and Tottenham Court Road and will arrive at Farringdon in autumn 2013. Further machines will be launched later in 2012 and beyond. The extent the tunnels to be built under London are on a scale not seen for many years. By late 2014, over 21km of twin-bore tunnel will have been constructed.”

Crossrail launched a TBM naming competition in January, inviting the public to submit pairs of names for the competition, receiving a total of 2,500 entrants. A Crossrail panel then shortlisted 10 pairs of names and invited the public to vote for their favourite pair - 4,374 people voted. The three entries that received the most votes will be given to Crossrail's first six TBMs.

After Phyllis and Ada, there will be Victoria and Elizabeth – after the UK’s longest serving queens – and then Sophia and Mary – after the wives of great engineers. Mary was the wife of the famous railway engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Sophia was the wife of Marc Isambard Brunel who built the first tunnel under the Thames.

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