The final phase of the staged opening of the Elizabeth line will go ahead as planned next month, in a move that effectively completes the project.
A new timetable offering trains roughly every two and a half minutes between Paddington and Whitechapel at peak time will be introduced from Sunday 21st May 2023 – although in practice, as Sunday is off-peak all day, the first application of the peak hours service will be on the Monday morning.
In addition, the regular pausing of eastbound trains just outside Paddington, sometimes for as much as seven minutes will come to an end, offering much faster journey times on the western branch of the Elizabeth line.
Also, customers from Shenfield will be able to travel directly to Heathrow Airport without needing to change trains for the first time.
Although the May upgrade was expected, it needed to be formally confirmed as taking place, following a software upgrade that was deployed over the Easter weekend when the central tunnels were closed. That has now happened.
When the new timetable comes into effect on Sunday 21st May, the current peak hours service of 22 trains per hour will be lifted to the full 24 trains per hour that the line has been designed to operate with.
There will be 16 trains per hour running off-peak.
When the core tunnels opened a year ago, there were 12 trains per hour through central London, which rose to 22 trains per hour last November. Next month sees that lifted to 24 trains per hour, which may not sound like a big increase, but it does enable a lot of other wider upgrades to take place at the same time.
There will be 12 trains per hour running between Canary Wharf and Abbey Wood in the peak, restoring the frequency that was in place between May and November 2022 to a train around every five minutes. The peak will also now last for longer, increasing capacity even further.
There is also the addition of more services at peak time between Liverpool Street National Rail station (platforms 15 -17) and Gidea Park, providing a faster route for those exiting to Bishopsgate.
In the west, there will be an increase in peak services from Reading, with some trains that were previously operated by Great Western Railway transferring to become Elizabeth line services with reduced stops.
There will also be more frequent services to and from Heathrow Airport as part of this timetable. The airport overall will receive six Elizabeth trains per hour all day. All Heathrow trains stop at Terminal 2&3, with four per hour continuing to Terminal 4, and two per hour continuing to Terminal 5.
That should help reduce complaints that the Elizabeth line is packed full of airport users in west London where trains have been very busy.
The changes, coming into effect on Sunday 21st May will be just a few days before the Elizabeth line marks its first year anniversary, having opened the core tunnels on 24th May 2022.
Since it opened nearly a year ago, more than 140 million customer journeys have taken place so far, with around 600,000 journeys now being made each weekday, and the Elizabeth line is already the UK’s busiest railway.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “Delivering the Elizabeth line has been transformational for our city, with hundreds of thousands of Londoners and visitors now enjoying the fast and reliable trains each day. The introduction of the final timetable next month marks the last milestone of the Crossrail project and will enable the Elizabeth line to provide even more frequent, speedier journeys and better connect the capital.”
The new timetable is available from here.
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.
No changes for us Acton main line users ☹️- at peak morning rush hour with all the early Atlantic flights landing the trains can resemble the central line.
In fact, things will get a little more difficult: the EL signage for stopping/not stopping trains is too subtle so at the moment we look for Heathrow trains. After the changes only terminal 4 trains will do.
Seems vastly unfair that the stations on this side have such sparse service compared too the rest of the line.
Although the quiet Acton Main Line station doesn’t get as many trains as much busier stations elsewhere, the Elizabeth line has doubled the number of trains that do call there.
Best hope for Acton Mainline is the demise of the Heathrow Express and the paths being given to the Elizabeth Line.
Should happen around 2028 according to the ever excellent London Reconnections
https://www.londonreconnections.com/2023/the-slow-death-of-heathrow-express/
No changes for Hanwell users either despite the extra Heathrow trains. Can’t understand the logic of that at all, looks like a random timetable.
Whilst the additional trains at Acton Main Line are appreciated, especially off-peak/late night, the peak has been transformed from a pleasant suburban commute to having to physically lever yourself on to trains just to fit. It does feel as though TfL underestimated the demand on the Heathrow route.
Hopefully the timetable changes will have some effect as increasing the overall Heathrow capacity by 50% and Terminal 4 by 100% (whilst pushing Terminal 5 traffic onto the Shenfield trains) should mean fewer airport passengers per train — and the reduced wait outside Paddington will make things more bearable too.
As far as I am ware, the two extra trains to Heathrow will NOT be calling at Acton Main Line, West Ealing or Hanwell. Incredibly annoying.
Is there any news on when go-live will be for 4G/5G within the tunnels?
Hate the Elizabeth Line. At the Woolwich, ends (east) its always packed, often cannot get a seat. Seats design is in hideous colours and glaring (and already looks so dirty) and the 4 seat sections fill up fast as people hate travelling sideways at speed. Seen people feeling sick on the sideways seats. Why so many sideways seats, was not the Elizabeth line supposed to be like a proper train and not a tube train. The carriages are packed with suitcases western ends. It needs far more services put on to cope with numbers.
I live in Woolwich and often use the line — while it’s obviously busy in the mornings, I’d never describe at as “packed” and on my many trips along the line, in my experience, most people gravitate to the sideways seats before filling up the others.
I’ve never seen anyone be sick, on the Elizabeth line, or any other railway for that matter, simply because they sat sideways. I suspect something other than sitting position would have affected that.
And the good thing about Woolwich is that if you don’t want to use it, there’s still the DLR and Southeastern to choose from instead. So you have plenty of alternatives to choose from.
The biggest joke of this is the 7.59 from Maidenhead, comes into Maidenhead empty, leaves empty although 100s of people on platform. 2 minutes later the Gwr arrives packed, then we all squeeze on.
Someone with half a brain might think to run the lizzy line direct to London.
Let me just reiterate the difference between direct and fast: direct means without changes, fast means express or very limited stop.
Surely someone with half a brain would consider switching to the Lizzie line for a more comfortable but admittedly longer trip
As least at Maidenhead you have that choice. Post 21 May rush hour GWR trains are no longer stopping at Slough. Lizzy Line is now the only option for Slough, and by extension Windsor, residents.
In your zeal to celebrate the Elizabeth line you fail to acknowledge the serious downgrade in internal ambiance which will be see Great Western trains equipped with toilets and a far nicer seating layout swapped out for toiletless glorified tube trains with longitudinal seating
For a lot of GWML passengers travelling beyond Slough this ‘new timetable’ is nothing to celebrate…
Have we had any confirmation of the proposed extension eastwards from Abbey Wood (such as to Dartford or Gravesend). It was mentioned in the 2018 mayor’s transport strategy (see below), but I’m unaware of any recent updates.
“The Mayor, through TfL and relevant boroughs, will support a Government-led extension of the Elizabeth line eastwards from Abbey Wood to provide up to 12 trains per hour, enabling Good Growth in the Thames Gateway corridor within and beyond London.” (found on Page 229)
I’ve written about it quite a few times – the most recent update is here
https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/elizabeth-line-to-ebbsfleet-extension-could-cost-3-2-billion-55570/
No Elizabeth line trains at Abbeywood this morning (7:55 am). Every week there are problems. What is going on?
At 4 years late and 100% over budget, a stellar result…. Now, whose going to jail or losing their job over this?
Paid for it what we did, why are the core station platforms stinking so nasty? And have done since day one.
Looks very promising. But this still leaves Heathrow T5 out on a limb, with only two services an hour. In the short term, improved information is needed about the right to use Heathrow Express trains from T5 and change at T2/3. Longer term, I hope T5 can at least get 4 trains an hour – there’s clearly plenty of demand!
Huge new develpment at Acton Main Line will create need for more than 4 trains an hour, when it is completed, especially at rush hour, when already the trains are crammed with suitcase bound tourists from Heathrow and the space is very very tight.