This coming Monday – 5th September – the Elizabeth line will start opening an hour earlier than it currently does, bringing it in line with most of the rest of TfL services. At the moment, the central section of the Elizabeth line between Abbey Wood and Paddington opens at around 6:30am, but from Monday, it will be opening at around 5:30am.
If you’re so inclined to be on those first trains, the first Elizabeth line train leaves Abbey Wood at 5:34am and from Paddington at 5:44am
There’s another change to the service though.
If you’re catching the early trains from Paddington, they will continue to depart roughly every 5 minutes until 6:13am, when they stabilise at a regular 5-minute interval.
However, from Abbey Wood, a very different service emerges with trains every 10 minutes until 6:30am. That’s because, for the first time, four of the Elizabeth line trains heading towards Paddington before 6:30am will be starting from Whitechapel station, not Abbey Wood.
After 6:30am the service resumes the standard every 5-minutes departure from Abbey Wood and trains won’t be starting at Whitechapel.
At the moment, the services will continue to stop at around 11pm in the evening as they already do, and will run Monday to Saturday, closed on Sundays. That changes on 6th November, when the line will open on Sundays and expand services in the central core to include trains from Shenfield to Paddington and Abbey Wood through to Reading/Heathrow.
A final tweak due in May 2023 formally completes the Elizabeth line.
Why isn’t there any toilets on the Elizebeth line trains
For the same reason there aren’t any toilets on the Jubilee or Northern line trains – it’s a metro service.
Reading to Shenfield is hardly metro….. Should be at least 1 toilet for that distance when then 3 lines eventually become one
No sensible person would ever use the Elizabeth line to get from Reading to Shenfield – it’s far slower than the alternatives.
For the record – a journey end to end on the Northern line – 70 minutes with no toilets. A journey from Shenfield to Reading is 90 minutes, with two changes at stations with toilets.
So the ELizabeth/Mainline journey has more loos than the Northern line.
There are toilets inside the ticket barriers on some of the stations. If you need to go, get off the train, you’ll only have to wait a max 5 mins for another train.
It’s older persons with their Freedom Passes who are most likely to use the Elizabeth line to travel to Reading – but who cares about their needs…
The point of the Elizabeth Line was conceived since the 1900s: investors and developers wanted to build rail links that crossed London. However, the Tube was the only available option due to planning laws. Fast forward 120 years later, better technology and strong business cases have fueled the realisation of this project.
Does anyone know what time the EL trains will stop running once the full timetable starts? I assume it it’s midnight from May 23?
Hi, do you know when the elizabeth line will have direct trains from Stratford to central London?
https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/elizabeth-line-to-run-through-paddington-and-liverpool-street-from-november-56947/