Welcome to The Elizabeth Line
29 May 2022
ABOVE: Metroline VW1402 (LK62 DVP) passes Southall’s now-Elizabeth Line station on its way to Hounslow on route 120.
Picture taken on Sunday 29th May 2022
Picture taken on Sunday 29th May 2022
Every transport blogger worth his or her salt has been writing about the Elizabeth line this week; even if their blogs are supposed to be about aeroplanes, canal barges … or buses. So I thought that I should join in.
For anyone who isn’t aware, the Elizabeth Line is a brand new railway through (or more accurately, under) the heart of central London. You might know it as Crossrail, which was its name during construction. The new section opened last Tuesday, 24th May. In a few months’ time, existing suburban lines from the west and east of the capital will be joined into the new section to create a truly regional railway.
It isn’t a new tube line. It’s part of the national rail network and is built on a much larger scale than a traditional tube route, with full-size trains. And it looks amazing.
Hang on, I hear you cry. I thought your blog was supposed to be about buses. Well yes it is, so I guess I need to link buses into this article; here goes. All 41 stations on the Elizabeth Line are also served by buses. There, that should do it.
ABOVE: It’s difficult to get decent photos of the smart Elizabeth Line trains in the new section, because of the platform doors that have been installed (see below). So instead, here are two trains passing at Southall station in West London, on Friday 27th May 2022. Curiously, both are running through non-stop to make up lost time, having been ‘cancelled’ at Southall due to late running!
I have a major interest in this line, as I was involved with the construction project for four years from 2009 until 2013. I won’t say in what capacity, as I wish to preserve my anonymity on this blog and it would give the game away. But I gained a huge amount of experience in areas such as stakeholder relations, and enjoyed the strange experience of being embedded within one organisation, and working closely with a second one, whilst being paid by a third.
So it was with a huge amount of joy that I took my first trip on the new line from Paddington on Tuesday morning. I didn’t attempt to get on the first train – hundreds of others wanted to do that so I didn’t stand in their way. I was on about the 14th departure from Paddington – the 0738.
It’s only 29 minutes from Paddington to Abbey Wood – very much faster than it has ever been possible to do such a trip before. (There’s a very good video by Geoff Marshall that sets out how much quicker.) So I could have done a round trip in about an hour, but I had to get to work!
So I just travelled one stop on that first train, to Tottenham Court Road (TCR; it will be two stops when the new Bond Street station opens). This will be my commuter route when the existing line from the west is linked up to the new line this autumn.
Everything has been built on an epic scale – ‘cathedrals under the ground’ is a phrase I have heard used in connection with these new stations. The aspiration was always to build something that would be ‘World Class’, and it is.
Because the trains are so long (over 200m – equivalent of a 10-car standard British train, although these have slightly longer-than-standard carriages formed as nine car sets), the station platforms are obviously also very long. A blogger called Diamond Geezer has produced a useful guide to the best place to be on the train to alight at the right point at each of the new stations.
ABOVE: Looking down the long eastbound platform at Tottenham Court Road. We’re only half-way along so there is as much platform behind me as there is in front. It’s Tuesday 24th May 2022, just over an hour after the first train will have called here
After work I went back to TCR and rode right out to Abbey Wood, the far end of the line, a station that has probably never been so busy!
After a lengthy walk in the morning from the platform to the street at TCR, I was expecting another lengthy walk from the Northern Line, but it’s actually a very quick interchange. I now recall hearing about the huge engineering job that was required to squeeze the Elizabeth Line tunnels in through ‘the eye of a needle’ at TCR, with reportedly less than a metre’s clearance from the Northern Line tunnels.
It was hard to tell whether there were any ‘real’ passengers on Tuesday, as opposed to those who were just trying the new route out. Every other person seemed to be posing for a selfie, and many went out through the gate-line and turned straight round! But there were nearly as many people when I went back down two days later, which is a good sign.
So many journeys will become faster as a result of this new line, and I can see myself popping over to South East London more regularly (nearly did that on Thursday but I didn’t finish work until after 6 – I figured the line will still be there next week).
Of course, a major new line like this does need good supporting bus services, and good quality bus information. Roger French wrote another of his highly-insightful reports about his findings in east London, where this attention to detail may be lacking.
For me, I wish the bus stops for route 24 at TCR were a bit closer to the station exit. On Tuesday I walked down Charing Cross Road to discover that the first southbound stop is all the way down at Shaftesbury Avenue. The previous stop is way back up the road on the other side of the Oxford Street junction.
The likelihood is that one will see a bus go whilst walking to the stop. And as they have been reduced to ‘only’ every eight minutes (apologies to readers in the countryside, but I’m a Londoner, and eight minutes is a long time to wait for a bus!), one really doesn’t want to miss one, does one?!
I found myself speculating that it would be easier to change to the Northern Line from TCR to Leicester Square, where the 24 bus stop is right outside the station – might try that tomorrow!
It’s not just the new section that needs a little more urban realm work completed. At Southall station on the pre-existing western section line, the northbound bus stop opposite the station was suspended a couple of years ago due to a major road development. The development is now complete, but there’s no sign of the bus stop being restored. In the meantime, it’s a TCR-length walk to catch one.
There – I managed to bring buses into this article after all!
I do have a few minor gripes about the train service. None are to do with the new section itself, but just a few presentational things that would make a huge difference…
Not all Elizabeth Line trains on the western section serve all stops, but this isn’t really made clear by the on-train information systems. There are some peak services that skip five out of six consecutive stations. Whilst I wouldn’t normally advocate more automated announcements, one to say that “this train is fast from Ealing Broadway to West Drayton” would be appropriate.
And passengers do get confused by the displays of planned stops, which show the next three stops and the final destination. I have seen people asking if a train stops at a major place like Slough or Maidenhead, because the information board on a train that has just left Paddington will only show, for example, Ealing Broadway, Southall, Hayes & Harlington and Reading. An easy thing to fix.
ABOVE: Does this train stop at Hayes & Harlington? Indicator showing only the next three stops on the service, and the ultimate destination. Probably just needs a “plus 4 more stops” caption added
The timetable on the western section was amended earlier this month in readiness for the time, in the autumn, when trains will be diverting off the Great Western Main Line at Royal Oak to head down into the new central section.
It will be a great day when that happens, but it has led to some slightly ‘quirky’ timetabling in the meantime. I used to have a broadly even set of trains every 6-9 minutes, but the gaps are now wider, with two trains in quick succession and then a longer gap of up to 12 minutes.
There is also some odd pathing time on some westbound services. Some trains have four minutes of pathing time between Paddington and Acton Main Line – a journey normally possible in six minutes being timed for 10. The 2011 (MF) from Paddington has no fewer than 7.5 minutes in pathing allowances between Paddington and Southall, making what should be a 12-13 minute trip into a near-20 minute journey, with just one of the four intermediate stops served. All on a very congested stretch of track with a finite number of paths available. Presumably the constraint is the platforming at Paddington, and should be resolved when the sections are joined up.
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And, of course, TfL, being TfL, is now fully focused on the new central section, and seems to have completely forgotten that the outer sections of the line are open on Sundays, if the latest travel news is anything to go by: |
ABOVE: TfL website on Sunday 29th May. Only the central section of the Elizabeth Line is closed on Sundays; the outer sections are open as normal.
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None of these little gripes should detract from the overall picture though. We have a wonderful new train service, through the heart of central London, which looks and feels amazing. Capacity within London’s subterranean railway system has been increased substantially overnight.
In the coming week I want to pop over to Canary Wharf, to stand on the westbound platform for a minute. It’s something I did in 2011, when the station was just a ‘box’ in the ground. On that visit I also stood in front of the space that would become the entrance to the westbound tunnel – then just a circle drawn on a wall. Now it’s real. Obviously I won’t be able to stand in front of the tunnel wall now.
After that site visit, I realised how long it would be until I could catch the train from Canary Wharf to Paddington (about seven years, which of course became 11). I also recall standing, with colleagues, on the bridge above Abbey Wood station around 10 years ago. A man passing-by said “just hurry up and build it” and walked on! A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then (although hopefully not that particular bridge as it’s a railway bridge).
The trains themselves are bright, spacious, fast, smooth and, above all, BIG (estimated crush load is 1500 passengers per train). Running through the tunnels is incredibly quiet. This is a major, positive story for London’s transport network. We don’t get those very often, especially nowadays!
This article is a one-off deviation; the buses will be back centre stage next time! Here’s one to tide you over…
ABOVE: RATP Group VH 45266 (LF18 AHM) on route 105 serves the nearest northbound stop to Southall railway station (the station is in the background, rear left). It’s Sunday 29th May 2022.