Elizabeth line

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The Elizabeth line is a National Rail line run by Transport for London which runs between Abbey Wood and Shenfield to Heathrow and Reading in the west. Although the oldest section from Taplow to Paddington opened on 4th June 1836, the Elizabeth line did not open in full until 24th May 2022, making it one of the newest additions to the Tube map.

Route description

Routes will be listed in chronological order of when they were built.

Great Western Main Line

The Great Western Main Line (GWML) section of the Elizabeth line is the oldest section of it. It originally ran from Taplow to London Paddington starting in 1836, although not all stations were built yet (for instance, Hanwell and Ealing Broadway opened on 12th June 1838).

Prior to the Elizabeth line (then known as TfL Rail) taking over the stopping services from London Paddington to Reading, Great Western Railway (GWR) used to run them, replacing them with the current Class 345 EMUs. TfL Rail took over services between Paddington and Reading from GWR on 15th December 2019, however they had already been running services to Heathrow (taken over from Heathrow Connect) since December 2018. The first service from the CCOS (Crossrail Core Operating Section) to enter the GWML was on 6th November 2022 with headcode 9T28.

This section has a total length of 36 miles from London Paddington (high level) to Reading.

The current stations are as follows:

• London Paddington
• Acton Main Line
• Ealing Broadway
• West Ealing
• Hanwell
• Southall
• Hayes and Harlington (See Heathrow branch for the branch line from Airport Junction)
• West Drayton
• Iver
• Langley
• Slough
• Burnham
• Taplow
• Maidenhead
• Twyford
• Reading

Note that most trains terminating at Maidenhead or Reading do not call at the following stations:

• Acton Main Line
• West Ealing
• Hanwell
• Taplow

Acton Main Line and West Ealing are served by all trains that terminate at a Heathrow Terminal. Hanwell and Taplow are served by all trains that terminate at Maidenhead.

The service on this section of the line is as follows (correct as of Phase 5b in January 2023):

• Heathrow T5
• Reading
• Heathrow T4
• Maidenhead

This repeats every 30 minutes, giving each of the places above a 2tph frequency and therefore 8tph up to Hayes and Harlington and 4tph on each branch beyond. However, this may be different at the starts and ends of every day, since Heathrow services are shorter than Reading or Maidenhead services they can be started earlier and finished later, meaning that the Reading and Maidenhead services are cut off from the termini above for anywhere between 1-2 hours depending on the day of week.

Great Eastern Main Line

The Great Eastern Main Line (or GEML for short) was first built in 1839 as a short section between Devonshire Street Mile End and Romford, however it was slowly extended and more stations were added over time until it ran from Liverpool Street to Shenfield. This part of the Elizabeth line was formerly a Greater Anglia service known as the "Shenfield metro". Unlike when the GWML was taken over as TfL Rail, the Shenfield metro had its fleet of Class 315 EMUs taken over and repainted in TfL Rail livery, which managed to last beyond the Elizabeth line's opening all the way up until Friday December 9th 2022, where units 315837 and 315856 worked headcode 2C76 from London Liverpool Street to Gidea Park.

Services were transferred to TfL Rail on 31st May 2015, then renamed as Elizabeth line on 24th May 2022 with the GWML section. The first service running directly from the GEML into the CCOS had headcode 9Y29, running on 6th November 2022.

The current stations are as follows:

• London Liverpool Street
• Stratford
• Maryland
• Forest Gate
• Manor Park
• Ilford
• Seven Kings
• Goodmayes
• Chadwell Heath
• Romford
• Gidea Park
• Harold Wood
• Brentwood
• Shenfield

Unlike the GWML, there are no semi-fast services on this section of the Elizabeth line. However, there are 2 services a day which terminate at Gidea Park instead of Shenfield, those being headcodes 2C62 and 2C76, as well as 2 services a day that start at Gidea Park, those being headcodes 2C59 and 2C73. There are also a few peculiar empty coaching stock (ECS) services that use this line to go to Gidea Park sidings that terminate at Whitechapel in the CCOS before running empty to those sidings.

As of phase 5b, this section has an 8tph service. However, it is planned to be increased to 12tph in phase 5c, starting from 21st May 2023.

Heathrow section

11 miles and 10 chains from London Paddington on the GWML, the GWML splits off at the Airport Junction to form the Heathrow section, also known as the Heathrow tunnels. (Note that the junction may sometimes be incorrectly referred to as Heathrow Junction, which is incorrect because that was the name of a short-lived station around the Airport Junction area.) This section opened in 1998 with Heathrow T2&3 and Heathrow T4 stations, with Heathrow T5 not being added until it was complete in 2008.

This section was operated by Heathrow Connect before TfL Rail took over its services in December 2018. However, Heathrow Express continues to run here. The stations are as follows:

• Heathrow T2&3
• Heathrow T4
• Heathrow T5

Heathrow T2&3 receives a frequency of 4tph, whereas the other 2 stations receive only 2tph each. As a result, passengers going to Heathrow T4 or T5 stations are recommended to get on any Elizabeth line service to Heathrow and change at T2&3 (this can even be seen on the information screens above PSDs in the CCOS). Heathrow T5 passengers can change for Heathrow Express for free, however Heathrow T4 passengers will have to use the Piccadilly line (also free when only travelling between terminals).

As of 3rd September 2022, TfL has had to increase the fare to travel to Heathrow. However, this only applies to journeys starting in Zone 1 and ending at a Heathrow Terminal, therefore it is possible to use split ticketing to reduce the fare when travelling to Heathrow. This can be done either by buying two paper tickets or tapping out and back in at any station not in Zone 1 (although this will increase your journey time by at least 15 minutes).

Crossrail Core Operating Section

The Crossrail Core Operating Section (or CCOS for short) started construction in 2009 with works beginning at Canary Wharf, although the Crossrail Act 2008 received royal assent in 2008. It was originally planned to be open on 9th December 2018, however several delays with the project meant it instead opened on 24th May 2022, although Bond Street faced extra difficulties with its construction and was not able to open until 24th October 2022.

This section is usually described as Abbey Wood to Paddington, however it actually covers everywhere with CBTC on the Elizabeth line, meaning it includes Westbourne Park Sidings, Stepney Green Junction up to Pudding Mill Lane portal and Abbey Wood Crossrail siding.

The current stations are as follows:

• Abbey Wood
• Woolwich
• Custom House
• Canary Wharf
• Whitechapel
• Liverpool Street
• Farringdon
• Tottenham Court Road
• Bond Street
• Paddington

Phase 5a between 24th May 2022 and 5th November 2022 saw it have a 12tph service, with a timetable that meant that Abbey Wood would see trains in multiples of 5 minutes past the hour (xx:00, xx:05, etc.), as well as no Sunday service (and no weekend service on some days). However, phase 5b decreased the service temporarily to 8tph, although RMT strikes during this period meant that the phase 5a timetable was brought back in on RMT strike days due to the links between the CCOS, GWML and GEML not being in use.

The CCOS also uses a different voice for automated station announcements, unlike the Atos worldline system being used in the other sections. Its timetable in here uses second resolution, meaning that the trains are timed to arrive and depart by the second. Platforms are also named A and B, which stand for Abbey Wood and Berkshire respectively.

Although most of the track and stations are new, Custom House and the Connaught tunnel (up to Silvertown) are reused from the old North London line. Because of this, while the rest of the CCOS has a speed limit of 60mph the Connaught Tunnel is limited to 50mph. The Connaught Tunnel also has both lines inside the same tunnel, meaning that in the event of disruption it is possible to see two trains in that tunnel at once.

Current full route

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Gallery

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Trivia

• The Elizabeth line is not a London Underground line. Instead, it is much more similar to RER services in Paris; they both run on regular tracks in the suburbs and go underground and run like a metro in the city centre.
• The Elizabeth line cost about £18 billion to build.
• PSDs are installed at every station in the CCOS that is underground. They have 47 white lines on each door, and the glass panels in between have either 57 or 90 lines.
• The PSDs also have extra capacity on some sides for the possibility of extending the trains to 11 carriages instead of the current 9. The stopping boards at the end of platforms are also mounted onto two metal lines which go up to where they would be if there were 11 carriage trains in preparation.
• In the corner of each PSD, there is a number from 1 to 27, which is its door number.
• Oyster is invalid beyond West Drayton on the GWML and Brentwood on the GEML. This makes it the only TfL service where Oyster is invalid at certain stations.
• There are some future stations and extensions planned: the extension along the North Kent Line to Gravesend/Ebbsfleet International via Dartford, as well as Silvertown station (halfway between Woolwich and Custom House, where the line goes above ground to join with where the North London line was) and Old Oak Common station for a planned HS2 interchange.

References

1. https://www.davros.org/rail/culg/elizabeth.html#rolling Archive A: https://web.archive.org/web/20230128210224/https://www.davros.org/rail/culg/elizabeth.html Archive B: https://archive.ph/44NVQ