Queen Elizabeth II attended the opening ceremony for a new train line in London on Tuesday, her third public appearance in less than a week after health problems had forced her to miss the opening of Parliament for the first time in nearly 60 years.
The queen, 96, ceded that duty to her son and heir, Prince Charles, as her age and health have increasingly kept her away from public events.
Her surprise appearance at Paddington Station on Tuesday was for an event celebrating the completion of the Elizabeth line, a long-delayed railway named in her honor. The train line had been under construction for 13 years and opens next week.
The queen met workers who had helped build the line, which runs west to east underneath central London, and some of the staff who will run and maintain it. Her youngest son, Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex, accompanied her.
The queen was given an Oyster card, the transit pass used in London, and shown how to use it on a ticket machine. She wore a yellow coat and hat, and used a walking stick to walk around the station concourse. Last week, Buckingham Palace said she had decided against attending the Parliament ceremony because she was having trouble walking.
At the station, the queen was welcomed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson; London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan; and Andy Byford, the commissioner of the city’s transit authority and the former leader of New York’s subway system.
“We’re all incredibly touched and moved and grateful to Her Majesty for coming to open the Elizabeth line today,” Mr. Johnson said at the event, according to the BBC. “It was fantastic to see her.”
The queen has made few public appearances this year, and until last week, she had not been seen in public since late March.
She had to cancel a series of events after testing positive for the coronavirus, and also skipped a Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey not long after her recovery. The queen last missed the state opening of Parliament in 1963 and 1959, when she was pregnant.
Days later, she was able to attend two events near her Windsor Castle home. On Friday, she made an appearance at the Royal Windsor horse show to watch her horse, Balmoral Leia, compete and win the Highland Class 64 event. The queen observed the show from a vehicle parked close to the parade ground and spoke to officials through an open window.
Some Key Moments in Queen Elizabeth’s Reign
Becoming queen. Following the death of King George VI, Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary ascended to the throne on Feb. 6, 1952, at age 25. The coronation of the newly minted Queen Elizabeth II took place on June 2 the following year.
A historic visit. On May 18, 1965, Elizabeth arrived in Bonn on the first state visit by a British monarch to Germany in more than 50 years. The trip formally sealed the reconciliation between the two nations following the world wars.
First grandchild. In 1977, the queen stepped into the role of grandmother for the first time, after Princess Anne gave birth to a son, Peter. Elizabeth’s four children have given her a total of eight grandchildren, who have been followed by several great-grandchildren.
Princess Diana’s death. In a rare televised broadcast ahead of Diana’s funeral in 1997, Queen Elizabeth remembered the Princess of Wales, who died in a car crash in Paris at age 36, as “an exceptional and gifted human being.”
Golden jubilee. In 2002, celebrations to mark Elizabeth II’s 50 years as queen culminated in a star-studded concert at Buckingham Palace in the presence of 12,000 cheering guests, with an estimated one million more watching on giant screens set up around London.
A trip to Ireland. In May 2011, the queen visited the Irish Republic, whose troubled relationship with the British monarchy spanned centuries. The trip, infused with powerful symbols of reconciliation, is considered one of the most politically freighted trips of Elizabeth’s reign.
Breaking a record. As of 5:30 p.m. British time on Sept. 9, 2015, Elizabeth II became Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, surpassing Queen Victoria, her great-great-grandmother. Elizabeth was 89 at the time, and had ruled for 23,226 days, 16 hours and about 30 minutes.
Marking 70 years of marriage. On Nov. 20, 2017, the queen and Prince Philip celebrated their 70th anniversary, becoming the longest-married couple in royal history. The two wed in 1947, as the country and the world was still reeling from the atrocities of World War II.
Losing her spouse. In 2021, Queen Elizabeth II bade farewell to Prince Philip, who died on April 9. An image of the queen grieving alone at the funeral amid coronavirus restrictions struck a chord with viewers at home following the event.
And on Sunday, the queen attended an equestrian performance, A Gallop Through History, held as part of this year’s Platinum Jubilee, a celebration to mark her 70-year reign. Four days of festivities are planned for early June to celebrate the jubilee, with a balcony appearance on June 2 featuring the royal family as a symbolic centerpiece.
Several prominent members of the family will not appear on the balcony, including Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, and Prince Andrew. The official explanation for their absence is that both princes have stepped back from royal duties.
Prince Harry and Meghan pulled back from royal obligations when they moved to Southern California in 2020. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey in March 2021, they accused members of the family of callous and racist behavior.
Prince Andrew was stripped of his military titles in January after a federal judge in New York allowed a sexual abuse case about him to go ahead. He paid an undisclosed sum to settle the case, according to a lawyer for Virginia Giuffre, who had filed the suit.
In late March, Prince Andrew escorted his mother to a service at Westminster Abbey in London held in honor of her late husband, Prince Philip, who died in April 2021. It was the queen’s last appearance in public until the horse show on Friday.
