The Elizabeth Line (otherwise known as Crossrail 1) has finally opened, although as three branches (or three railways). The three branches are: Reading/Heathrow Airport to London Paddington, London Paddington to Abbey Wood, and London Liverpool Street to Shenfield. There has been some delay as well - amounting to 3 years and 8 months - as the railway was supposed to open in September 2018. The delay was down to infrastructure works not being completed on time, and a potential underestimation of project completion time by the Crossrail team. Having said that, most stations have been opened apart from Bond Street which is still to be completed. The Elizabeth Line was opened on Tuesday 24th May 2022, after a visit by the Royals (the Queen and the Earl of Wessex) had taken place the week before (on 17th May) to formally open the new railway. The Queen also officially unveiled a plaque to celebrate the completion of the line named in her honour. The plaque will be permanently mounted at London Paddington. On Tuesday 24th May, the first train departed at 06:33 from London Paddington. Londoners and rail enthusiasts who were at the opening had been queueing for a long time - the first since midnight - and when the line was opened, they raced down the two flights of escalators to join the first train. A few hours later passengers had to be evacuated from London Paddington's Elizabeth Line station due to the fire alarm going off. Fortunately it was a false alarm, and after 30 minutes everything returned to normal. My Visit I visited Farringdon Station the best part of two weeks' later after the opening, and the station staff at Farringdon were very keen to give me directions on how to reach the Elizabeth Line platforms from the Thameslink platforms. In a way they seemed to be pleased with having a new railway passing through. The directions I was given proved to be useless, and so I used my own judgement as to where the Elizabeth Line concourse was. Then I was faced with what I saw as extremely steep escalators. I was immediately put off using the escalators, but I was still determined to get down there somehow, so I used the lift. The lift is straightforward and easy to use. Level -1 is the main concourse, Level -2 is Thameslink platform 3, and Level -6 is the Elizabeth Line. Once down, I saw a few Elizabeth Line Class 345s, but I did not travel on them, as time did not allow. I just merely walked around a bit and took some photos. The platforms were rather spacious, and a number of people were making use of the new railway. Timetables
Nowadays between London Paddington and Abbey Wood, there are 12 trains per hour (tph), and that is due to increase up to 24tph when the three sections converge into one line by May 2023. A 'Roaring Success' Such were the words of London Mayor Sadiq Khan after one week of Elizabeth Line operation. More than one million journeys were made on the new railway within the first five days according to Transport for London (Tfl), Also more than two million journeys have been made across the whole line (inclusive of all three branches of the railway). Transport for London's Director of the Elizabeth Line, Howard Smith said: "It has been fantastic to see the Elizabeth line receive such a great reception. Customers have been flocking to the railway in the hundreds of thousands each day since opening to marvel at our beautiful new stations but also to experience drastically shorter journey times."
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AuthorHello I am Pedr and I like modern trains. Archives
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