The final major customer upgrade for the Elizabeth line will take place on Sunday 21st May 2023, the latest board papers from Transport for London (TfL) have confirmed.
It was expected to take place at the same time as the National Rail timetable change, which is due on 21st May, but there was still a risk that the deadline would be missed due to some ongoing reliability issues and problems with an autoreverse at Paddington.
The autoreverse is used when a train heading west ends service at Paddington. The passengers get off, and then the train drives automatically towards Westbourne Park where it automatically reverses back to Paddington station — all while the driver is walking through the train to get to the other end to drive it eastwards again. The autoreverse saves precious minutes to enable more trains to be driven through the core tunnels.
Since 6th November 2022, the service has been operating 22 trains per hour (tph) in the Central Operating Section (COS) at peak times. With the May 2023 upgrade, it will increase the number of trains in the peak hours through the core tunnels to 24 per hour. There will also be shorter gaps between trains on the Abbey Wood branch – from 7 minutes to 5 minutes, and ending the temporary timetabled pause on eastbound trains heading into Paddington.
There are still problems on the western side of the line where it runs along Network Rail tracks, and these are expected to be resolved shortly, while a few more software upgrades are planned for the signalling and train control systems.
Baring internal changes to the line, such as more software upgrades, this May marks the effective completion of the Crossrail project as the final Elizabeth line service comes into effect.
There are some potential upgrades in the future.
One that’s guaranteed to happen is that a new Elizabeth line station will be built in west London, at the Old Oak Common interchange with HS2, which is due to open in 2029-33.
The core tunnels are also designed to handle up to 32 trains per hour — compared to the 24 trains per hour that’ll be in service from this May. The nine-carriage trains can also be lengthened to 11 carriages in total. Both of those upgrades would need central government funding to pay for the additional trains and carriages that would be needed though.
In the meantime – what is officially the final piece for the Crossrail project to complete the Elizabeth line kicks in on 21st May 2023.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news “Elizabeth line: Commuters say service ‘not what was promised'” – it seems that TfL didn’t communicate the low levels of service to west of Paddington!
Not quite sure how complaining of a service to a huge airport is full of air passengers is actually news though.
On a couple of the travel sites I read / post on there are a number of people who believe the main purpose of the Lizzie Line is to to get people to Heathrow and are stunned when told that in the initial plans it was never going to go there and then it was only going to go to T2/3 and T4 and T5 was very much a late addition.
There will only be a large increase of Lizzie to LHR when the HEX service ends in 2028 because the fast trains will end opening up more paths for stopping Lizzie trains.
I’ve always thought the ongoing (and key component of the 3 year delay) network rail signalling complexity on the western section bizarre. They’re not exactly busy tracks (grade seperated from the fast GWR tracks) and there were always similar low numbers of mixed-use trains running the tracks before.
It’s like they’ve long needed to take a step back to realise it really shouldn’t have to be so complicated. Sadly they like to keep signalling in their own little exclusive and old-fashioned world.
This is definitely not the final upgrade.
You still have scope to increase the length of trains (upgrade), the increase of frequency (upgrade), new software on trains (upgrade), AND track/signalling which will eventually reach end of its life (upgrade)
I am guessing that you didn’t read the article before commenting.
Hopefully if/when the trains are eventually upgraded from 9 to 11 carriages they’ll consider fitting at least one accessible toilet, perhaps in the middle of the train. Whilst most stations have toilets at the station (or nearby the station in the core) it assumes that all passengers are able to wait until the next station.
I gather Great Northern’s newer 717 fleet that goes to Moorgate also lacks any toilets, compared to the stock it replaced.
The 313 stock in use on the Great Northern Electrics from 1976 to 2019 didn’t have toilets. Therefore there has been no change with the introduction of the 717 fleet, custom built to operate in the deep ‘tube’ style tunnels from Drayton Park to Moorgate.
Wish they would refurb some of those tube level stations though. Its dingy and dark and unwelcoming down there. With all the work at Old Street. Are they going to refurb the passageways and platforms too
It would be nice and it would be good if the Elizabeth Line could Expand to Basildon. But if they plan to Expand it to Benfleet for Canvey Island and Southend Central. Then the Trains have to be Non Stop at certain Stops seems to me.
So no further improvements to the Shenfield branch? (Well except being able to go through to Heathrow/ Reading). A little bit of a shame
Something must be happening on Liverpool St to Shenfield as there is no service all day every Saturday and Sunday in February and two weeks of March. Amazing rubbish service for a section that is supposed to be finished!
The entire railway between Liverpool Street and Shenfield is closed by Network Rail for works – that’s Greater Anglia affected as well.
After the May upgrade, what is the planned number of trains per hour to Heathrow?
Will the reading train continue to bypass Acton mainline, West Ealing & Hanwell?
Kind regards
John
The number of trains to Heathrow is planned to go to 6 per hour in the may upgrade, of which 2 will go to Terminal 5 and 4 will go to Terminal 4.
With the Heathrow Express not directly serving Terminal 4, it makes sense that a higher Elizabeth service is being provided there. Still, it would have been nice if Terminal 5 recieved a little more love.
Source: https://www.crossrail.co.uk/route/western-section/heathrow-airport
Lizzie wasn’t planned to go to T5 – is was a relatively late addition.
There will only be capacity for more Lizzie trains to / from LHR in general when the HEX concession ends in 2028 (and that’s if it isn’t renewed) and more but slower trains will be able to use the train paths that fast services block.
How about upgrading the train carriages to add some luggage racks? It’s ridiculous that a service running to the main London airport doesn’t have any! It’s not like the trains are tube size, there’s plenty of room.
You do realise that only a relativly small proportion of trains go to LHR.
There aren’t that many racks on trasins to Gatwick and it’s not really a major issue. Most people want their luggage next to them not on a rack
A carriage with a bathroom and table seating would be nice, as would WiFi and/or 5G in the central tunnels.
In 315 days, trains East of Stratford were always jam packed at rush hour. I haven’t been on the 345s through London, so can’t comment on what it is like now. But space for toilets and luggage are not a priority on the Shenfield branch.
Is there any plan to do fast train from Reading/Maidenhead to Liverpool Street without changing at Paddington?
No.
And, just to expand, that would be like asking, if the extension to Ebbsfleet ever happens, “Is there any plan to do a fast service from Ebbsfleet to Paddington without changing at St. Pancras”. Even though the fast and slow lines are next to each other in the west, they’re still separate routes.
The BBC news item was a poor piece of reporting.
The claimed deficiencies in the service are due to high levels of usage rather than cancelled trains. As TfL data shows, the service is highly reliable.
I do agree with others commenting above, that some sort of toilet facilities should be provided on board, even if only as part of a later upgrade to services. It is not good enough to have such long services without basic facilities, as this is a barrier to travel for many Older and disabled people.
The upgrades on the eastern section in part are due to upgrading the power supply (auto transformer) for the full service (and in order to accommodate more GA trains, which may now not be needed due to the downturn in commuting). How the full EL service would have operated without this in May 2018 is another question? That said those of us on the GEML are used to many weeks of full closures in the winter months -it’s the norm!
In para 6, do you mean to uncover as in baring your chest, or barring as in except for?
Someone dropped a bomb in my world upthread with “HEX ending in three years”. Really? If so that might improve the abysmal Elizabeth line service to LHR T5. Twice an hour is not sufficient!
Do these modifications mean one can avoid the trek across the entire width of Paddington station to continue one’s journey west ?
This hasn’t been the case for a while.
There’s a problem with the GWR app because it doesn’t distinguish between “London Paddington” and “Paddington” (EL), describing all times by the former name.
This doesn’t matter so much in the Eastbound direction since if a train is going to Abbey Wood it must call at Paddington low level. However the app doesn’t show where trains start so it’s not much help for Westbound services.
Some EL trains do start from or terminate at London Paddington at the start and end of service, but while these are shown on the main departure boards and screens the Westbound EL trains from Paddington low level are completely ignored. Not very helpful!
Trains can be lengthened from 9 carriages to 11, but are the central tunnel stations even future proofed for this? As i am only aware of underground stations having 27 exits in total i.e 9 carriages worth. I hope that there isnt a need for passengers to travel along upto 4 carriages within the train just for the ability to exit, let alone get to the carriage where the escalator/stairs are.
Yes, the stations were designed to accept longer trains.
Is there a list of future proofed stations that can accept 11 carriages? Because Whitechapel and Liverpool Street which are really busy only have 27 doors, unless they can take down the walls to reveal even more space for 6 additional doors
You can read the planning and engineering documents on the legacy Crossrail website.
Thank you!
I take the train from Hayes & harlington to Canary Wharf or Liverpool Street. I’ve noticed how shoddy the service back is as opposed to going in; how is the frequency of trains to go back out considerably less? There are more people on a single reading train from Liverpool Street at 5:30 than the last 3 trains to Paddington. It’s almost laughable how they tout the ‘24 train’ capacity at peak hours, like who the hell cares about travelling between abbey wood and Paddington
“who the hell cares about travelling between abbey wood and Paddington” <-- thousands of people each day do.
I Think the Elizabeth Line Should Expand to Chelmsford In the future.