More Elizabeth line trains arriving in Summer 2026
The Elizabeth line will have a more frequent service from the middle of 2026, when the first of ten additional trains start arriving in London.
The ten additional trains were ordered in the dying days of the last government, partially to assist in keeping Alstom’s Derby factory functioning but also because Transport for London (TfL) was able to put forward a strong case that it needed them to deal with surging passenger numbers on the Elizabeth line.
The average daily passenger journeys on the Elizabeth line keep rising, reaching 787,000 in April 2024, leading to crowding on some journeys. Although it’s pretty much standing room only during peak hours in many parts of the line, TfL cites the eastern branches and the central section out to West Drayton as showing particular strains.
On the east, with the current fleet of 70 trains, TfL expects that on-train crowding levels could increase by about 10 percent by 2031 with standing expected from Romford in the morning peak rather than from Chadwell Heath today towards Liverpool Street (an almost 30-minute journey).
People standing on trains isn’t a problem, if the duration is modest, but asking people to stand for half-an-hour is the sort of thing that puts people off using public transport. TfL also expects on-train crowding levels from Abbey Wood to Whitechapel to increase by about 12 percent by 2031 with standing expected from Abbey Wood (a 15-minute journey).
The west is particularly problematic, with a 50 percent increase expected due to the opening of Old Oak Common as the (temporary) terminus for the HS2 railway.
Although the crowding and opening of Old Oak Common would seem an obvious reason for the need for more trains, a business case still had to be made with the government for permission to buy the trains. TfL says that it found the benefits-to-cost ratio from buying ten new trains to be very high, at greater than four to one.
That means that for every £1 spent, there would be £4 in benefits.
According to a supplemental document that will be presented at a forthcoming Programmes and Investment Committee meeting, TfL says that the combined fleet of 80 trains (70 current plus 10 additional) will give them the flexibility to deploy a service in the best way to respond to the network’s pressures and opportunities.
Although not stated in the report, it’s worth noting that while the core section of the Elizabeth line is designed to handle longer trains, there’s a long been a strong argument in favour of a more frequent service with more trains rather than longer, less frequent trains—not just in terms of passenger preferences but also because it’s a lot less work to add more trains per hour than to carry out the station and depot upgrades needed for longer trains.
At the moment, it’s far too early to say exactly how the timetable will change, but TfL has worked on two preliminary ideas for the peak hours service:
Package West
- 18 trains per hour (tph) to Old Oak Common from Paddington (would be 12tph today)
- 10tph to West Drayton from Old Oak Common (currently 6tph)
- 26tph in the central operating section (currently 20-24 tph)
Package East
- 18tph to Old Oak Common from Paddington (would be 12tph today)
- 28tph in the central operating section (currently 20-24 tph)
- Increasing services to Abbey Wood to 14tph (currently 12tph)
TfL expected that increasing services to the east and in the central operating section could add an additional 22 million passengers per year, whereas increasing services to West Drayton could add an additional 16 million passengers per year.
As noted, at this early stage, it’s too early to know which of the two options would be implemented, if a third option is found, or if individual stations in the west would see more stopping services.
Although the order for the additional ten trains has been made, TfL still needs to find space to store them, with the Westbourne Park turnaround being the most likely site.
However, with Alstom prioritising the manufacturing of the new trains and TfL having time to plan the new timetables, the Elizabeth line should see an increase in capacity around the middle of 2026.
Is the first bullet for Package East meant to say Shenfield not OOC?
TFL really needs to get its hands on the 4 HEX slots which would actually enable it to offer more services than that.
But given a recent announcement that HEX has been given paths until 2028 it’s unlikely that’s going to happen until then.
Chris C,
Those HEx (Heathrow Express) slots won’t help TfL but would help GWR run more long distance services. The slots are for the main line. The Elizabeth line runs on the relief lines.
What would help is more capacity on the relief lines to cope with the requirements of the Elizabeth line and the freight trains to and from Acton Yard.
The HEX slots can still be given to TFL!
And ceasing the fast trains would free up capacity in the Heathrow tunnels for more but slower trains.
Capacity not speed!
“it’s a lot less work to add more trains per hour than to carry out the station and depot upgrades needed for longer trains”
What upgrades are needed? I thought the whole point was that the stations were built and ready for longer trains from the beginning.
In the central core and at brand new stations outside of the core yes but not always possible outside of that due to station locations and things like bridges and tunnels preventing platform extensions.
Built with capability to be extended – but you will see a lot of the longer platforms would need doors fitted to them, and there’s the issue of capacity in the depots being aligned for current train lengths, with passive provision for longer when needed. In essence, was designed for longer trains to be added, in maybe 20-30 years time.
This is brilliant news that 10 extra Class 345s will come to Crossrail’s Elizabeth Line. However they really need to send more trains to Heathrow Airport especially to Terminal 5, so they really need to get rid of the Heathrow Express and get the Elizabeth Line using both platforms at Terminal 5.
Chris C,
Network Rail are not going to tolerate 90mph max trains on the fast lines mixing with 110/125mph trains. And then they would have to terminate at platforms 6/7. There is no way of getting them into the tunnel from the fast lines. So what have you achieved? Replacing Heathrow Express with TfL running an equivalent service.
TfL could probably run an extra 2tph to Terminal 5 today if they could find the slots on the relief lines (and it is not clear they could find them for their proposed West Drayton service) and they had the trains.
Getting back to the article, it is clear to me that TfL now think it is more important to solve the problem of providing enough trains for commuters between West Drayton and Acton Main Line than providing yet another 2tph to Heathrow. Contrary to what people imagine, the Heathrow stations are not that busy and the current Elizabeth line service (even without HEx) could comfortably handle current passenger numbers.
Timothy,
HEx can run 4tph using one platform at Terminal 5. Why do you think TfL can’t do the same with the other platform? You don’t need to kill HEx to improve the Elizabeth line service to Terminal 5.
It’s good to see how the additional trains are likely to be used. As an Ealing resident, I hope Package West is taken forwards, but I fear the additional complication of interfacing with Network Rail may make Package East more likely.
One thing isn’t clear to me – Old Oak Common has a planned opening date of 2029~2033. How can 18tph run to Old Oak Common from 2026 if it isn’t due to be open then?
The Heathrow issue could be solved quite easily if they sent 2 of the 4 T4 trains to T5, to get a roughly 15 minutes service at T5, and 2 of the v Heathrow Express to T4.
Peter,
HEx won’t like that. Hardly anyone uses T4 station. It is more of a place to turn trains round than to carry passengers. There is the additional complication of the single track tunnel between T2&3 and T4. Looks like a good idea but operationally it would be a nightmare.
The article doesn’t mention any extra trains to Heathrow, any extras would go to West Drayton and beyond
How do they plan to add an additional 4tph on the GWML relief lines when they are currently at capacity?
The slightest problem on the West side results in the service collasping now just adding in more trains wasn’t the answer they should have been extended. Train length is the best way to increase capacity not more trains this is proven time and time again on the main line network. If it was self contained like a tube line then higher frequency could be delivered but it isn’t and will never be.
What is the theoretical maximum on the central section? The article talks about them increasing to 28tph, but can it increase beyond that to 30tph or 32tph in future?
Clearly minimum dwell times and speed of acceleration/deceleration are the limiting factor.