The final stage in the opening of the Elizabeth line will go ahead as planned on Sunday May 21, Transport for London confirmed on Monday.
This will increase peak services in central London to 24 trains an hour in each direction and introduce the first direct services between Heathrow and Shenfield on the line’s east London and Essex branch.
The new timetable will also remove the seven-minute “dwell” suffered by eastbound passengers outside Paddington. There will also be more trains serving Liverpool Street mainline station and from Reading at peak times.
The changes, which follow an upgrade of the signalling software over Easter, will increase peak frequencies from 22 to 24 trains an hour between Paddington and Whitechapel, with 16 running off-peak.
The peak will last for longer, increasing capacity on services that have become packed at the start and end of the working day due to their popularity.
More than 140m journeys have been made on the Elizabeth line since it opened on May 24 last year – about 3.5m a week. It is the UK’s busiest line, and accounts for one in six of all rail trips made in the country.
An “auto reverse” system is being introduced to enable empty trains to “drive themselves” backwards from the Westbourne Park sidings near Paddington to re-enter service – while the driver walks from one end of the 200m-long train to the other.
The £20bn line, which was delayed by about three-and-a-half years by construction problems, has been unveiled in stages, including the delayed opening of Bond Street station last October and the start of through trains from Abbey Wood to Heathrow last November.
The May 21 date effectively marks the completion of the Crossrail project after 14 years. After years in planning, the project got underway in Canary Wharf in May 2009.
But London businesses will be paying for the Elizabeth line for years. City Hall expects to continue to impose its Crossrail “community infrastructure levy” and business rates supplement until 2041.
These are paid by businesses with a rateable value of £75,000 or above. The levies raise about £253m a year, which is used to pay off interest on loans and to reduce the loan capital. The Greater London Authority owes about £4.3bn in Crossrail debts.
There will be six trains an hour to Heathrow. All will stop at Terminal 2&3, four per hour will continue to Terminal 4, and two per hour to Terminal 5.
Mayor Sadiq Khan said the Elizabeth line, which was originally due to open in December 2018, had been “transformational”.
He said: “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.”
TfL commissioner Andy Lord said: “The Elizabeth line has transformed the lives of Londoners and the experience for visitors to the city in just under a year.
“With this new timetable, those travelling through central London will have a train arriving around every two and a half minutes, those using Heathrow Airport will have more regular services, and time will be shaved off many journeys from Reading, Heathrow and into central London.
“Those on the east will also benefit from twice hourly services to the airport, linking Essex and west London on the line for the first time.”
Meanwhile, transport minister Huw Merriman has brushed aside concerns the Elizabeth line will become massively overcrowded as a result of delays to the HS2 high-speed line to Euston.
Euston’s HS2 station is not expected to open until 2041 due to the Government’s decision to halt work for two years in a bid to ease HS2 cashflow problems.
This means that HS2 passengers will have to transfer onto the Elizabeth line at a new station at Old Oak Common, which is due to open around 2031.
TfL wants the Government to pay for extra Elizabeth line trains to provide extra capacity for HS2 passengers wanting to reach central London or Heathrow.
Mr Merriman, in a parliamentary written answer to Labour’s shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh, said: “We do not anticipate the rephasing of Euston to impact passenger demand at the point Old Oak Common services commence.
“My officials continue to work closely with Network Rail and Transport for London to understand future levels of passenger demand and capacity requirements both at Old Oak Common and throughout the wider transport network as HS2 services are introduced.”
