A consortium that includes Tokyo Metro will be awarded a contract to operate London’s Elizabeth Line, a major train route serving the country’s capital city and environs.

It is the first overseas deal involving actual line operations for newly listed Tokyo Metro and could help address concerns about the growth potential of a passenger rail business in depopulating Japan.

“In my opinion, expanding into overseas markets is a positive thing,” said Kazuta Fukushima, a senior research officer at Sompo Institute Plus, a Tokyo-based think tank.

Tokyo Metro announced Wednesday that Transport for London, the city’s transportation authority, intends to pick GTS Rail Operations for the contract. GTS is 65% owned by Go-Ahead Group, a U.K. railway operator, and 17.5% by both Tokyo Metro and Sumitomo, the general trading company.

Transport for London said it expects the new operator to enhance line operations and get ready for future expansion of the services by “bringing the best parts of Tokyo and London” to the Elizabeth Line.

The line, which runs 117 kilometers below and above ground, was opened in 2022. It connects Heathrow Airport with the center of London and beyond and has 41 stations. More than 210 million passengers are carried a year, making it one of the busiest lines in the country.

The GTS consortium will take over operations of the Elizabeth Line from May 2025 and run it for seven years.

Hong Kong government-controlled MTR Corp., which runs a wide range of transportation assets in its home market and owns real estate, won the contract in 2014 to operate the line, which was then called Crossrail. The agreement was for eight years from 2015, with the possibility of a two-year extension.

Relations between China and the United Kingdom have been strained in recent years, with human rights issues being the main point of contention.

Shares of MTR Corp., which trades in Hong Kong, were little changed on Thursday.

Tokyo Metro’s October Tokyo Stock Exchange listing was Japan’s biggest initial public offering in more than five years.

Public enthusiasm was strong for the listing and for the company itself. On its first trading day, the stock price surged as much as 47% after the subway operator sold shares at ¥1,200 apiece to raise ¥348.6 billion ($2.25 billion). The shares traded down 0.9% on Thursday, to ¥1,700.

Tokyo Metro has a highly profitable domestic subway business, as its network connects with nine of the 10 busiest stations in the Japanese capital. It carried 2.38 billion passengers in the last fiscal year.

“We are currently aiming for further expansion of our overseas railway business by actively promoting the operation and maintenance business,” Tokyo Metro said in a statement, adding it intends to turn its overseas business into a growth driver.

The company has been providing consulting and training services overseas, but this is the first time for it to be involved in actual subway operations outside of Japan.

At this point, many specifics, such as how much this project will increase revenue and what roles Tokyo Metro will be tasked with, remain unclear, so it will take some time to assess how this deal really benefits the company, Sompo Institute Plus' Fukushima said.

“This might turn into something significant that could expand into new markets, so I think the focus will be how this project will play out and what value it will deliver.”