Unsurprisingly, the subject of Crossrail/Elizabeth line opening dates is a hot topic in the transport community at the moment. In this article, we address that big purple elephant in the room.
The truth is that Crossrail’s opening date (Or the Elizabeth line, as it is finally becoming) is currently a moveable feast.
This isn’t something for TfL or prospective passengers to panic about. We are long past the point where it became a question of when it would open, not if. It’s simply that opening an entire new railway, of Crossrail’s scale, is a complex series of interconnected events.
Before we explore how those events will play out, and outline the remaining challenges, it is only fair to readers who care mostly about the headline date to get that information out of the way first:
There are currently two target dates for the Elizabeth line’s possible opening, from TfL’s perspective. One is in May (and will be very obvious to anyone with a passing familiarity with how UK railway timetables and Network Rail work in the UK) and one is in June. Ignore anyone telling you that either of those dates is confirmed for opening (officially or internally). If it had been, we’d be printing it here.
That we’re not is precisely because TfL themselves have yet to decide when to open it. “It opens when it opens” may have been a frustrating message to hear from those of us keen to use it, but it’s also true. As both TfL and Crossrail have made repeatedly clear, the railway needs to be reliable before it can open.
This was something that Mark Wild, Crossrail’s CEO, emphasised in a personal LinkedIn update on 25th April:
“As we countdown to opening the new railway in the first half of this year we are diligently completing the complex safety approvals and also building reliability through continuous timetable running.”
The key phrase in the sentence above is continuous timetable running. It’s this that dictates just when a move to prepare for an opening date will begin (we’ll talk a little bit about what to watch for there in a bit).
The opening Elizabeth line operational timetable is somewhat TBA, but whatever level of service operates at launch will drastically exceed the 5tph service on the last full line that TfL opened (the East London Line on the Overground). Complexity in railway operation doesn’t scale linearly, it scales exponentially, and this means there remain challenges around working out what the best balance of stability vs launch service on the Elizabeth line.
Most of these relate to the two systems that have proven most problematic to Crossrail’s construction and fit-out since the start: Train software and signalling.
The line will have a solid claim to be the first “fully digital” railway, at least at its scale, in the world. And that’s meant Siemens and Bombardier (or rather Alstom now), as signalling and rolling stock manufacturers respectively, moving from worlds where they were dealing with mature, physical setups to a new way of working and testing. With hindsight, how these interface with each other on a digital level has proven considerably more complex than any of those involved in the project expected to be (although exactly as complex as the software industry would have told them to expect, but that’s a discussion for another day) and time consuming to get right.
The good news here is that both are now at a point where the remaining issues aren’t launch blockers. They’re things that impact reliability or operational style, and thus possible level of service at launch. On the train side, for example, 69 of 70 units have now been accepted by TfL. The remaining unit (018) is the telemetry train which will need refitting first. Of those 69, 68 have been used in passenger service so far. Unit swaps for servicing between the East and West sections of the line, via the core, have also been running without issue for some time.
All this means that, in terms of train reliability, things are near where TfL need them to be, with the latest train software update over the long Easter weekend hopefully improving reliability further (as previous updates have done) and pushing overall reliability above levels targeted for opening. They need to allow for ongoing refits (primarily from 7-9 car, four of which are currently underway), but on an engineering level the fleet seems to be performing how they need it to perform.
On a signalling side, however, some uncertainty still remains. Again, it’s important to stress that this is no longer a blocker to launch. It’s simply a limiter on initial service. And the longer TfL go without opening the railway, the more they can do to increase that limit quickly. This is because it’s obviously far easier to make improvements to a railway that isn’t in passenger operation than it is to an open one.
The signalling issues that remain are a mix of software, communication issues (spotty coverage and/or electrical interference from older systems), and interface issues with non-core infrastructure. A big software patch over Easter was aimed at ironing many of these out at a software level, following on from a similar big patching exercise earlier in the year that proved successful. The Easter push, however, was not expected to fix them all. The question is more, at this stage, whether it’s worth holding back for one major push on software before officially opening, or whether the gain from doing so would be less than simply opening and dealing with these issues through minor patches later.
Almost all of the remaining issues fall into this category: they’re about service level and reliability, not blockers to launch. LR understands, for example, that auto-turnback at Paddington remains off-the-table in the current software. This is a problem, as it’s not possible to run more than 22tph through the core without it. But at the same time, having the facility for this level of frequency wasn’t expected until September, with the December 2022 timetable change planned for operation. Opening now may mean this doesn’t become possible until early 2023, as it’ll limit the ability to push and test changes, but at the same time there’s no guarantee that holding back on launch a bit longer would solve this problem any quicker. The only true blocker is a late-diagnosed issue with the emergency service radio systems, which needs to be fixed before the London Fire Brigade will accept the system into service, but this is seen as solvable.
Alongside all this, the stations that can open are now all ready to open. We always treated with suspicion suggestions that Bond Street (Which remains a thorn in the project’s side) could partially open at launch, and sources suggest that this has now been fully accepted by TfL and Crossrail themselves. Bond Street will be evacuation-only at launch, and open fully later. This will be true regardless of a May or June opening.
Hopefully, all the above has given you a good idea as to the current status of the Elizabeth-Line-To-Be. TfL and Crossrail are, mostly, at their “stick or twist?” moment. It’s about calculating whether the level of reliability and service they already think they can deliver (based on testing) is appropriate for launch, or whether there are tangible benefits to giving those involved a bit more time to work on software and signalling passenger-free.
We say mostly, of course, because there is one final thing – entirely outside TfL’s control – that plays a factor in the line’s opening: COVID rates.
Whilst the government seems to have largely decided that COVID is no longer a national issue, the data and reality is unfortunately the opposite. Current ONS case rates remain high, and this is having a visible impact on staff availability in businesses and organisations across the country. TfL is no different. One wildcard on the Elizabeth line’s opening thus remains staff availability. If there aren’t enough staff available, the line can’t open. There are no signs that currently TfL expects this to be an issue, but the situation may change with little warning.
So, if we accept that the line is almost ready to go, then what should people watch for in terms of signs that it’s about to happen?
Here, the important thing to remember is that opening is a series of interconnected events that, once started, can’t easily be stopped. Think of the Elizabeth line’s opening as more like a rocket launch than a ribbon cutting exercise.
Indeed one reason we know the opening is close at all is that many of the steps that, for purely logistical reasons, have to start about six weeks out have already begun. Signs are being unveiled in stations. Entrances and interchange passageways cleared and prepped. These are the things that are required for opening, but can (and should) be done as far in advance as possible.
Beyond that it’s probably best to think of the Crossrail (the project) to Elizabeth line (open railway) transition as being on a two-week timer. Once the decision is made, it’ll take two weeks to move through the various steps required to be ready to receive passengers, and leave sufficient time between that and the official end of testing, the last stable software patch and the rest. This also allows for finalising operational approval with the ORR. LR understands that neither the ORR or TfL anticipate any issues with this. Inspections that can be done already have been done, paperwork pre-submitted. It’s mostly a case of reviewing any iterations and getting the final stamp of approval.
It doesn’t take a lot of mathematical work, therefore, to work out when we should know something. So, putting our Gandalf hat and beards on, we will say this:
On the fifth day (of this week): look to the East. If the Elizabeth Line is opening in May, then the signs (in some cases, quite literally) will emerge then. If not, then you can apply the same logic to the available weekends in June.
Until then, treat any announcements of an opening date on social media or elsewhere with a pinch of salt.
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It did occur to me over the weekend that the current “first half of 2022” date is the sort of thing you see several years in advance, not nine weeks away. One might also observe that Crossrail has been ‘a few months from opening’ since late 2018, but I’m sure there will be a future LR article exploring all the reasons that went wrong and whether it could have been foreseen.
BTW there’s a typo in one of the captions: ‘eacuation testing’.
Either way, not long until it’s time to explore the central section. PS The first picture is of Farringdon, not Paddington as captioned.
Fascinating post – we’re at a really exciting time.
I keep thinking back to the Jubilee Line extension – opened quietly on a Friday morning in May with a limited, weekday-only service (apart from an initial “go and have a look” first weekend) that finished at 7pm, then it was gradually boosted as the rest was finished.
They won’t get away with doing it so quietly this time, but I still suspect it’ll be a case of “oh, we’ve opened it”, rather than announcing a date in advance and having huge crowds all at once. .
My pet theory was the day after the local elections, or the Friday after, but there have been no test trains today or at the weekend, so that’s looking unlikely if they want a couple of weeks of non-stop intensive running before it opens. Good thing I’m not a betting man! Jubilee weekend feels like an obvious target, but whatever happens, hopefully it all works out fine in the end.
Is there no chance the specific aim is for Jubilee weekend, and all work is going towards that rather than even trying for May?
At the Canary Wharf station open day yesterday, all of the staff were religiously repeating “first half of 2022” to the most frequent question of the day. I have had a good chuckle this morning.
There’s a foreseeable signage / direction-finding problem at ticket hall level there. Now to try to find some way of attracting some attention to it.
Re: “exactly as complex as the software industry would have told them to expect”
See Hofstadter’s law:
It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law.
…and also the ironic trope of the small matter of programming
My first guess is that it will be opened in time for the Jubilee celebration. It is the Elizabeth line after all.
One thing that could have been done in advance but wasn’t is to show the line on the Tube map as “Under construction” as used to happen, but seems to have fallen out of favour for some reason. Admittedly it inadvertently saved a lot of embarrassment that it wasn’t done in the run-up to the original opening date, but any physical or virtual maps put out this year could have shown it fairly confidently, ready to allow journeys to be planned once passengers know it is open.
@Andrew S
There is little point in showing a future service on Tube Map as the time-to-publication can be measured in milliseconds (online PDF) rather than weeks (for paper) or years (for “pocket calendars”), The dynamic online tube map is updated dynamically many times a day…
@Ade @Liza
I’ve heard others speculate that the jubilee weekend is the “obvious” date – personally if I was involved in this decision I would make every effort to avoid opening on that weekend, as the most minor hiccup would be a PR disaster.
Thank you for this, loads of hyperbole on Elon Musk’s new toy, but as Darryl mentioned does anyone know what’s behind the last three days of missing test services? Has something come up in testing that is a show stopper?
@Brian Butterworth
Many travelers still uses the printed Tube maps, so having them printed up in time for Crossrail’s, or any other line’s, opening would I think be quite important. The key is to maximize knowledge and use of any new service, and to save passengers time.
I bet on 2 June
@LBM @Brian Butterworth
Thinking back to the 1990s I used to carry an A-Z around with me in London, and it would make sense to have an “under construction” line printed on the tube map on the back cover as an A-Z would last a few years. Many similar publications existed at the time (diaries, guide books etc) with similar lifespans.
Although these sorts of publications still exist, I suspect far fewer pay to licence the tube map these days, and I think anyone not using a smartphone would expect to refer to the latest printed map at the station anyway – so “under construction” is a lot less useful.
Re the comments about printed tube maps – the Eurostar departure lounge at Brussels Midi is still giving out copies of the May 2018 edition
@Steve Boschen
If we’re indulging in wild speculation, my total guess is that the two dates are 15th May and 26th June.
As explained above, personally I think 2/3/4/5 June are being given a wide berth. They won’t want to take the risk of the opening detracting from the Jubilee, or being lost within everything else going on.
How we get used to wonderful new facilities (in London anyway) – I was on the first Victoria line train, or one of them; working alongside Euston Road helped. Without that my Dad met me at Euston, from Liverpool and we had a mad change at Embankment (was it Charing Cross then ?)for District line to Victoria for the 18:18 to Horsham. End of most school terms.
It’ll be similarly amazing to zip from Liverpool Street to Paddington without the crush and so many stops.
The current map doesn’t look to good to fit it in as a ‘fast’ line.
I still use map books (I refuse to get a GPS or use mobile data – I like to give my brain a workout) and the better ones have under construction lines printed on the relevant pages. I tend to use my map books for decades. If an all new line or extension is constructed (or new bike trails) I happily take a pen and draw them in.
I thought the point of showing “under construction” lines on maps was not because of the delay in getting new maps out after the line opens, but to encourage people to plan their place of work and place of residence around the new line for several years in advance, so that the new line has a captive audience on day 1. This would be just as relevant in the instant electronic age, and I have no idea why the Battersea extension in particular was not shown until it opened. Does TfL no longer care whether anyone uses their new railways?
BTW, it would have been cute if the current map showed the Bank Branch and Unsweaty Betty in the same “under construction” way, without any acknowledgement of the different nature of these “under construction” sections.
I believe there’s a shock for Elizabeth Line users! Since the concept of Crossrail mimics that of the New York Subway which has had rolling stock air-conditioning for 30 years but still overheats, ask yourself why Crossrail won’t suffer the same fate!
Great article, which bizarrely is not listed on your front page. Had to click on the “long reads” tag to find it – I knew it was here somewhere ….
two logical dates:
14/15th May – when the National Timetables change- though time is getting short for that, now.
The “jubilee” weekend in June, so 4th/5th June, or even the Monday, but with a weekend service?
@Basil Jet
Perhaps your assumptions about how people behave is incomplete, given that on 25 March 2022 ianvisits reports “It’s just two stops and opened during a pandemic, but the Northern line extension to Battersea power station has already clocked up its 2 millionth journey.”
If you think people ONLY use paper maps, I have two million here that don’t,
Re Calvin Barrows @ 26 April 2022 06:56
“I believe there’s a shock for Elizabeth Line users! Since the concept of Crossrail mimics that of the New York Subway which has had rolling stock air-conditioning for 30 years but still overheats, ask yourself why Crossrail won’t suffer the same fate!”
Having a decent high flow rate ventilation system, very energy efficient rolling stock and well thermally insulated rolling stock which will make quite a bit of difference from NY.
The units will also be able underground for a comparatively short period of time so most of the heat from the air con will ditched straight to atmosphere
Seems FINALLY to be coming together, but do not forget it’s not finished yet. The big benefits, such as Canary Wharf to Heathrow, will still take much longer than meant to, due of course to the continuing change at Paddington, from down below to the main line platforms, which I reckon will take longer than the journey from Canary Wharf has maybe just done.
I do notice, seeing from the DLR westbound trial trains leave Custom House, some considerable acceleration speed.
Here are the latest statistics for Elizabeth Line train reliability (Period 13 2021-22.)
61 Full Length Units are now running.
Fleet mileage 253,000
Number of Technical Incidents (TIN) 68
A TIN is registered when a train is stopped for 3 min and the cause attributed to ‘fleet’
Number of 701D incidents 129.
A 701D is a 3 min delay or more due to any cause. It is believed to reflect the passenger experience more
accurately than TINs
Reliability is measured in miles per TIN (MTIN) or miles per 701D (MP701D)
Current stats for Class 345 Full Length Units are 3,720 MTIN/1,961 MP701D
For comparison, the numbers for the Class 700 Thameslink fleet in Period 13 were
32,787 MTIN/29,140 MP701D
:
Re Paul @ 25 April 2022 20:19
“If we’re indulging in wild speculation, my total guess is that the two dates are 15th May and 26th June.
As explained above, personally I think 2/3/4/5 June are being given a wide berth. They won’t want to take the risk of the opening detracting from the Jubilee, or being lost within everything else going on.”
Your thinking is along the right lines…
There is a greater chance of icicles forming in hell than opening on the Jubilee weekend for exactly the reason you state…
26th June is option 3 rather than option 2.
One of the big challenges is that once open testing becomes a lot more difficult – I would say 10 to 100 times than at present. It is possible they may not run the service for instance on Sundays to allow testing but is this politically acceptable ?
Are they in a position to do overnight testing or is this constrained by the National Rail part of the timetable as they need to get trains to & from the core (assuming that is where the tests are required) ?
Re Captain-Deltic @ 26 April 2022 10:34
The software updates to both train and signalling over Easter should help as regards reliability. Previous updates has seen moderate double digit % improvements.
345 FLU stats aren’t to far different to 700s 4 years ago and that has been a long steady improvement path.
A good number of Crossrail service delays /reliability issues are related to radio coverage either gaps or interference that are slowly being resolved.
i agree with others that there will be no grand announcement and build up to the first day… i suspect it’ll be a few days of staff being told to “treat it like it’s open” and an order to “open the gates, we are live” .. then few days later the press and mayor etc will be down there with the champagne.
There is zero reason to hold the opening of the train to get printed maps sorted out, if the odd tourist doesn’t know they can use the elizabeth line then so what? they haven’t lost out compared to todays service level. in fact all the better not to have a bunch of italian school kids trying to figure out how oyster cards work on day one.
Queen’s official Birthday is 10 June 2022 a week after Jubilee Bank Holiday so this seems a quieter time to launch than the Bank Holiday.
As discussed by Diamond Geezer, there really aren’t a great number of viable weekends left if the ‘first half of 2022’ is to be met.
If they miss the National Rail timetable change (15th May) they are unlikely to make the following weekend. If we assume, as everyone does, it won’t open around the Jubilee celebrations, that really only leaves 10/11th, 17/18th and 24/25th June. The first of these is an obvious one as it is the first realistic post-NR-timetable change date. The last is also an obvious one being the last opportunity to open ‘in time’ at a weekend.
I get the impression that there is real determination to commit to ‘first half of 2022’, at least in name, so if things don’t go as well as hoped for, I wouldn’t totally rule out late in the day on the 30th June which would mean only a Friday (nowadays, a lighter day for commuting) before the following weekend and a chance for things to bed down.
It has not been unknown in the past for openings to take place on a Friday afternoon (e.g. Brixton extension). Part of the reason was a feeling that commuters won’t change their travel habits until the beginning of the following week so it still means a relatively quite opening prior to the full effect of the following Monday.
What’s the issue with radio coverage, does this mean GSM-R (clearly harder to do reliably in tunnels) or the CBTC pick-ups (which arguably are short range radio)? We shouldn’t overlook the very large number of public authority approvals — safety, security, air quality, evacuation, fire, emissions etc. — in practice needed to start operation, including various parts of TfL outside the XR project: any one of these could hold up the start….
My money is on 16 of May
@ngh In Period 13 2017-18, the Class 700 fleet was on 8,436 MTIN. The Class 345 fleet was on 1,261 MTIN. 15 x 7-car Class 345 units were shown on Depot.
15th May
I just had a look at my ancient records and in 2015 they were beginning to recruit staff for the opening !!
I wonder if they paused the process or how many have been sitting around since then ?
I have been informed by a knowledgeable insider that it will open on a Monday or Tuesday during June and not before. So that narrows it down to eight possible dates! Purple art from local schools will adorn the stations.
I read this last night on what will soon be an Elizabeth line train from Heathrow T5 to Paddington, via T2/3. Impressive train. But only 2tph at the moment.
But I wondered, when the main Elizabeth line core opens in, er, whenever, will the frequency of the TfL Rail Paddington to Heathrow services and Paddington to Reading services increase to an Elizabeth-line level? They’re currently 2tph. Or will that upgrade wait until the trains are running through Paddington’s Elizabeth line station?
@Alan Richard
There is currently 4tph to Heathrow Terminals 2/3, with two continuing on to T5, and two continuing on to T4. As T4 is currently closed, the services currently run as empty coaching stock between T2/3 and T4.
The original plan was that the service would be 6pth to T2/3, with 4tph to T4, and 2tph to T5, however I don’t know when / if they will kick in.
It’s worth pointing out that for travellers heading to T5, you can also take a T4 service and transfer at T2/3 for a Heathrow Express service to T5 (no extra charge).
Given that the Northern line’s Bank branch will likely be reopening on Monday 16th May, I would expect that they will want to give it a clear run at the available publicity. Testing is scheduled for Sunday 15th May, and the rosters for the Jubilee weekend are based on the whole line being open again.
Bit surprised to see the comment about the emergency service radio systems having issues thought that would have been a fundamental requirement before test running started.
Personally once its signed off by the safety regulatory bodies they should just get it open.
@John Else :
“I have been informed by a knowledgeable insider that it will open on a Monday or Tuesday during June and not before. So that narrows it down to eight possible dates! Purple art from local schools will adorn the stations.”
We have children at a local school. How does one contract Crossrail to get in on this ?
Re: ngh @ 26 April 2022 10:22
We shall see but I am not confident that the things ngh raises will make the difference. To be fair, ngh’s thoughts are no different to most of the industry but I believe the thinking is flawed. Taking each point:
Having a decent high flow rate ventilation system. Ventilation is not cooling. It seems to help because of the wind chill factor but when is stops the heat has clearly remained. Metal is a good conductor, and retainer, of heat because its molecules are close together. However, air is not because its molecules are too far apart. Hence hot trains can dissipate heat into the network far quicker that air can remove it.
……very energy efficient rolling stock. There are inefficient trains on the Glasgow Subway, and the Warsaw and Prague Metro, but these networks do not overheat! Similarly the rolling stock on these Metros are not well thermally insulated so that also will not reduce the potential problem!
Why do trains have air-conditioning? Because if they do not, they get overheated in the summer. But they cannot get hot inside without getting hot outside. Air conditioning cannot address the overheated exterior – the metal skin and the dense and heavy metal component of the undercarriage, and that heat is carried into the tunnel!
The problem with ngh’s answers is that they are symptom based rather than cause based. Unbeknown to me Parsons Brinkerhoff (PB) in association with the Leaders of the United States rail networks identified the cause of overheating in the mid-1970s but I knew nothing about this when I identified the same cause in 2007. Seemingly their learning got lost, and it was not until I and my co-author were working on our latest paper in collaboration with the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB), that my co-author unearthed it. This paper, including those PB findings has been published by RailFactor, based in India. India is ahead of the curve in their understanding of the problems of overheating, both in rail and in buildings. RSSB are now doing their own research on the benefits of Solar Reflective Materials!
TfL are under purdah due to the local elections on the 5th May, so can’t announce yet when it’ll open officially. I’d expect an announcement on the 6th May once purdah ends.
“On the fifth day (of this week): look to the East. If the Elizabeth Line is opening in May, then the signs (in some cases, quite literally) will emerge then. If not, then you can apply the same logic to the available weekends in June.”
Any signs yet? I think TFL will want to get Bank branch reopening out of the way first, then avoid the jubilee weekend so second half of June?
Elizabeth line roundel installed outside stratford Station this week and I noticed some tfl rail signage has changed to purple Elizabeth line singage. Does that count?
@Dan
The totem pole in this (alphabetical) order (and all in CAPS)
DLR
Elizabeth Line
Overground
Underground
[National Rail]
The signs side the station now all say “Elizabeth Line” for Platform 5 and 8 and show the final purple roundel.
Was at Abbey Wood yesterday ( don’t ask ) – external small sign saying “Elizabeth”, but big roundel inside station entrance still neatly wrapped-up.
I was plainly wrong, suggesting 14th May, earlier.
Now, I think Mr Beckton is nearer the mark – low-key, early in a week in June … “Oh look, we’re open”
@Dan,
I noticed the tfl rail roundel at Langley was changed to Elizabeth Line some during the week. May go and check Taplow and Slough later today (mild detour of planned journey).
I would suggest 26 May – based on the fact that the LT Museum are doing Hidden London tours the previous week, which they wouldn’t do if the line was going to be open by then.
@Rich
The opening will not be hindered by purdah for two reasons: it’s not a policy issue, but a practical issue; and neither TfL, the GLA or the Mayor are part of these elections.
@quinlet
That’s not how purdah – officially known as “the pre-election period of sensitivity” – works; it doesn’t matter whether specific politicians are facing election or not, the guidance is that all public bodies are expected to avoid making any announcements or holding any public events that could potentially influence the outcome of the election.
As the Crossrail project is a significant public investment, is late and over-budget, and both main parties have had a role in its development and management, including a former mayor who is currently Prime Minister, there is far too much scope for opening-related commentary to attract a slew of politicised views that could influence the election.
Thus we will hear nothing more on an opening date until next week’s election is out of the way.
@Simon Fowler
Good spot. I just checked the Hidden London page and I see no Elizabeth Line tours after May 11th.
Has this changed? If so…
Having read through the long article and hundreds of comments that followed, I am still not any wiser than 20 minutes before reading the article on when is this line going to open, which I thought was the very purpose of the article.
I walked past a purple-clad driver in West Ham station this morning and asked him when it’s opening, to which he replied “June, hopefully”.
No signs of activity at the bus stops near Custom House station.
Indicators were expected, before the substantial changes to the local buses.
Frankly Mr Shanky, you seemed to have completely missed the point. There is no set Crossrail opening date. Yet. That’s it. That’s the point. It all depends on technical aspects working properly.
The new E-Timetables for National Rail from 14th May, have just “dropped”
There is no mention of “Custom House” station in the listings & “Abbey Wood” is shown as only being on/in Table 186 . “London to Dartford, Gravesend & the Medway towns via Woolwich & Abbey Wood”.
So I think that rules out the 14th/15th as a start date, pretty conclusively.
I suggest watching the Network Rail website closely for a timetable announcement.
Over this last week, the line diagrams on Northern line stations have been quietly getting updated, with the interchanges at TCR and Moorgate updated to include the Elizabeth line.
It just reminds me that some of the station line diagrams showed an interchange to the Fleet Line at one time. There were enamelled Jubilee Line labels riveted on top. I wonder if any are still left in situ ?
24th May.
Mark it in your diaries.
Subtle first official hint before it appeared in text form:
https://youtu.be/7RcXq-8cOac?t=64
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/may/04/crossrail-much-delayed-elizabeth-line-to-open-on-24-may?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other 24 may
Some interesting surprises in the opening announcement – 24th May certainly isn’t a date I’d seen any pundits favouring! The slightly limited 06:30-23:00 service hours and the full Sunday closures have an air of ‘its not-quite-finished-yet about them’, which makes it all the more interesting that TfL’s opted for an opening date more than five weeks earlier than they needed to. It’ll be very interesting to see how long the Sunday closures last for – from a selfish point of view, it rather limits annual leave-free options to pop down from the Midlands for a ride!
Alright – we were all wrong, including me – 24th May it is, and an announcement before election day too. Humble pie eaten.
TfL’s predecessor organisations have form in opening to the public on Tuesdays.
Expect non-public opening earlier….
Paul,
I was about as wrong as can be.
@ngh – I’m curious – what does “non-public opening” really mean in reality? Staff allowed to ride the trains? Soft launch to the public without announcement?
In terms of the latter I half expected something the day (a Sunday) before the Battersea extension opened, but when I wandered over the gates were firmly shuttered. In the age of social media, and with the amount of excitement around about it, I’m inclined to think they’ll stick to the announced date for public access.
Normal preference would be for a Sunday as first choice as a quite non working day, however other factors come into it…
Northern Line – The signalling computers needed to be shut down for quite while to do changes for the Battersea branch so the best day is on a weekend and preferably Sunday for least disruption hence not opening on the Sunday.
Similarly for the Bank Branch reopening they need as many trains and drivers on Sunday 15th May for testing hence the Bank Branch won’t open on the Sunday either but needs to open by the following Friday (no replacement buses available from the Saturday). Hence someone needs to make a go/no go call during testing on the Sunday or leave it till Monday which point to Tuesday at the earliest.
For Crossrail, Sundays are and will remain very high value for testing purposes for quite a while, hence it won’t open on a Sunday as it won’t be running on Sundays.
Non public opening = most of day is a dry run but with time out for purple ribbon + scissors + well known pensioner + politicians + media
Tuesday was also similarly popular for LU in pre TfL days…
Oh Crossrail will be getting its ‘VIP Day’ (as they call it these days) on the 23rd for sure.
I’m just not sure I/we will get an invite!
This may be a small issue, but watching the video, while much of the line seems impressive, why are the platform edge doors / walls so ugly?
Why use dark glass that it makes the platform space so much smaller and makes it barely possible to see the trains behind it? Why is it not a straight line, but jumps forwards and backwards between door and wall stretches? And the space / separation above the door top edge also doesn’t seem to be thought through well – eg compared with the wall/roof at the back of the platform…
@Paul
The Grant Shapps announcement of the opening comes complete with a Conservative logo. The day before local elections. It’s very clear that the government doesn’t see purdah in the way that you do.
@quinlet
Grant Shapps has described the announcement as “an act of breath-taking political cynicism by the mayor” and said he is “immediately referring this breach to the Electoral Commission for investigation.”
I would say that pre-election rules are very much a matter for interpretation in this case, but I expected TfL to err on the side of caution.
Clearly Shapps either believes the rules do apply, or sees cynical political capital in taking that view!
Either way I’m surprised that TfL didn’t simply wait two more days…
Christian Schmidt……..wait ’till you see it for real. The sense of spaciousness is really impressive.
@ngh
For the Bank branch reopening, the driver duty schedules during the closure and for normal service are too different to allow a go/no-go decision at such short notice. Especially when you consider that any new drivers who qualified during the closure will need to be trained on the Bank branch.
@Paul, to be fair to TfL, their press release neither mentions Labour nor the Mayor. However, once Shapps got over his shock at that “cynicism”, he was able to put out a Conservative branded equivalent.
Just stop and think that Paris’s equivalent, the RER, opened in late 1971 with the same sense of spaciousness and fast cross-city travel which then became available (plus the lengthy interchanges!) on various axes. So London is only 51 years behind the times. Paris now has 5 RERs (Resaux Express Regionales). Thameslink might be counted as London’s original RER , but is anyone expecting anything else soon around London ?
@MIlton Clevedon
If Thameslink is “Crossrail 0” then and it opened in 1988 that only makes us 15 years behind French friends. I lived in Brighton and Thameslink was very useful from that date. Of course the Snow Hill tunnel was there from 1866 to 1971 so cross-town full-sized train services did run for over 100 years.
With Westminster going Labour (31 vs 23 councilors), does that mean we are liable to get a reasonably pedestrianised Oxford Street? Or is it still too nimby?
A few weeks ago they were announcing Crossrail as an incredible new concept in transport.
It’s not a tube line, they said, there’s been nothing like this in the UK before, nothing in the world before…
Now they’ve just announced Crossrail will be opening with regular engineering works built-in.
Wonderful.
Technical query, posted here for everybody’s enlightenment ( perhaps)
Axonometric diagrams/drawings of all 9?) the central London Crossrail stations do exist – is there a central source or set of links for people to familiarise themselves with the layouts, I wonder?
Some insight into station layouts at: https://learninglegacy.crossrail.co.uk/documents/station-pedestrian-modelling-archive/ with concerns over crowding risks at Bond St, Farringdon & Moorgate.
On the related question of the reopening of the Bank branch, discussed above, TfL’s weekend travel email today now gives “Until Sunday 15 May” for the closure, suggesting that it will reopen Monday morning.
@bob
It’s not a suggestion, TfL have announced that as the date. https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media/press-releases/2022/may/northern-line-bank-branch-to-re-open-on-schedule-on-monday-16-may-following-completion-of-latest-works
Since Milton brought up Paris, I hope that the Crossrail planners noted the fact that RER Line A was overcrowded as soon as it opened (due to underestimation of the number of people who would transfer from metro Line 1 for relatively short journeys within the centre, and unexpectedly high cross-city commuter traffic from the eastern suburbs to the La Defense region).
Also, note that Berlin had a current-London-style combination of east-west, north-south, and inner-suburb circular S-Bahn lines over eighty years ago (although WWII and the partition of the city prevented them from being used to full advantage for a long time).
@Tom Hawtin
I’d say so. Seems to me that the Oxford Street pedestrianisation stalled at least as part of a political effort to undermine the mayor. And I imagine that the local opposition to, for example, buses running along Wigmore Street, is not the sort of demographic likely to ever vote Labour…
News note: HM has re-visited “her” line, it says here …
Presumably she wants to make sure she has inked it all in on her grice-map (!)
😁
Geoff Marshall claimed to be the first person to use an Oyster card on a barrier for the line at a recent press event. He promptly went to a machine to claim a refund as the journey was not, indeed could not, be made. I wonder if Her Majesty was advised likewise?
As Geoff didn’t make a journey I suggest his alleged first is trumped by my former colleagues at TfL and Cubic who have been doing complete test Oyster and contactless “journeys” since before the line was originally meant to open, travelling between the two ends by other means.
Will we get a big London Receonnections photograph with all the writers on Crossrail Day One to mark the special occasion?
The opinions in both the “Evening Standard” & “Diamond Geezer’s” blog of the new Tube/Rail maps showing the Purple Line are not favourable.
On the grounds of appalling “design” & errors { Notably that Moorgate does not have an interchange with “Cross/Liz” in the new all-lines map }
@Greg T
They’ve also been sending out contradictory emails too.
“There will be no Sunday services…. Services between Liverpool Street and Shenfield, and Paddington to Heathrow and Reading will continue to operate on Sundays as they do now”
I get it that their brand is “Elizabeth Line” and they’ve done all the work on that back in 2018, but these errors don’t reflect well on TfL.
It strikes me that all this confusion might just be that the branding was all done around the word Crossrail, which is a rather helpful word in that it embodies the purpose of the “new travel mode”, and the line was going to be called “Crossrail 1”.
Having transferred the idea of a “new travel mode” from “Crossrail” to the words “Elizabeth Line” means the concept has been partially erased from the name: the Elizabeth refers to a ubiquitous- person and the weak descriptor “Line”. This means that the branding now lacks a useful descriptor within the name itself.
And this the confusing “Elizabeth Line line” problem is because the idea of creating a “new type of thing” means it mismatches everywhere: It’s even lost the solid-purple-line that it was due to have back in 2018 so you now have some lower-frequency modes (London Overground, DLR) sharing the third-open-line style with a high-capacity line.
Perhaps once the “Elizabeth Line line” decision was taken there was no actual way back and the quirkiness won over logic and helpfulness?
Today Diamond Geezer also has a justifiably harsh post on the complete failure of TfL to provide useful information to people about yesterday’s major pre-Crossrail bus route changes in the Canning Town/Custom House/Beckton/Royal Docks area. I happened to be visiting someone in Newham Hospital yesterday and can confirm what he wrote.
The grid reference lines on the new tube map are so strong they make it all too busy and messy, perhaps they can decrease the colour intensity of those gridlines?
Need to shift a few of the station names around too, some station names are too far away from the station they’re representing, to the point of confusion
EG Liverpool Street, shift the name to above the Central Line?
Tottenham Court Road, too close to Goodge Street
Paddington, name is too far from station
Farringdon, connection to Thamelink too long
Canary Wharf, looks like you’re getting off at West India Quay (confusing for international travellers from Heathrow)
Whitechapel, looks like youre getting off at Shoreditch High Street
Jus me ‘umble ‘pinyon, sir
Are we losing the whole simplicity ethos of earlier maps?
@Bones
I’d be curious to compare the new map and the one I made with Crossrail back when I worked on Old Oak Common around 2015.
I guess at some point the problem becomes that there’s just too much information to fit on an humble map.
@JH Can you show us the 2015 map you designed with Crossrail?
The one I did on here seems to have stopped working. There’s a copy at https://ukfree.tv/article/1107052204/2050_Tube_Map_
First Impressions
VERY good – a couple of very minor niggles: One of the diagonal lifts @ the Barbican end of Farringdon was out, ditto lifts at the W end of Canary Wharf. – but that was it.
Amazingly long passageways in places, but that’s unavoidable.
Signage a lot better than anywhere else.
Prediction: As soon as it’s fully-open in 2023, it will be wedged – even yesterday @ approx 12.45, the detrain at Paddington was crowded – vast numbers of wheeled cases heading for Heathrow. The linkage between Heathrow/Gatwick/Luton @ Farringdon & to Stansted at Liverpool St guarantee a lot of usage. Add to that almost all of the present Shenfield service & the previously-underused Paddington incomes, who will almost all go further East ….
Other opinions?
A review article?
I don’t think it will be long before 11 cars are needed.
@Greg T
Not having exits at both end of some very long platforms at Whitechapel seems a bit of an odd thing to have, when you’ve overspent on that station by hundreds of millions.
The trains have Wi-Fi in the core, but no leaky feeder to connect them to the Internet.
Some of the on-train display information was a bit oddly ordered when “alphabetical order” would be easier to understand….
@LongBranchMike I’ll try to dig that out of my old hard drives.
The Sept 2020 plan was to go to 30tph rather than 11 car trains. Whitechapel started out as a double-ended station, maybe consulted upon, before economies led to the scheme constructed.
Is one (30ph vs 11car trains) easier than the other with regard to the rolling stock allready owned? (I presume cars 10 and 11 would need to be ordered, built and delivered, do we have enough trains to run 30tph in the initial order, or would more be needed?)
This diagram from a 2009 source appears to show Whitechapel with just one entrance/exit at the Western end, with the eastern part having a ventilation shift and emergency exit.
https://cdn.ca.emap.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2009/09/Whitechapel.png
I think one entry and exit point is probably sufficient for Whitechapel, but would have been helpful if it was closer to the middle of the platforms.
@jamesup
Class 345: 630 carriages forming a total of 70 units were produced. Nothing else is required to run the planned service, including the peak-direction-only extra trains for Liverpool Street end.
jamesup Either option need more cars, but both deliver more or less the same capacity. 30tph is more challenging operationally – they’re long trains and the run in-run out time in stations is significant. From my limited excursion on opening day, the journeys seemed a little leisurely. A train performance tune up – acceleration, braking rates and possibly the odd speed limit might need tweaking to make it more “urgent”, like the Victoria line. Also, while not an expert, stepping back of drivers might be needed at Abbey Wood, for example.
Lengthening the trains also involves ensuring:
a) legacy platforms long enough – or Selective Door Open is adjusted appropriately so that people don’t have to gallop along three cars to get out and,
b) more platform screen doors (PSDs) will need to be fitted at all the underground platforms with controls to detect the train length and only open 9 cars worth of doors when shorter trains arrive in the station. (I’m assuming that lengthening the trains will only start after all the PSDs have been fitted, that conversion will take several months and it won’t be acceptable to suspend the service for several days with reduced services either side of the closure as was the process for lengthening the Jubilee line trains)
c) other berths or sidings are long enough. As far as I can see from a quick look at Google maps, this includes many of the sidings in the new Old Oak Common depot
The Whitechapel drawing dates from around the start of construction, but I’m pretty sure earlier ones had a ticket hall on Cambridge Heath Road.
page 28 of 45 confirms my recollection of Whitechapel here: https://learninglegacy.crossrail.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/3D-027-02_Initial-Central-Area-Information.pdf
At Whitechapel has the eastern end been compromised or has passive space been left.
To quote @Tax report
“Crossrail Whitechapel station will have a new ground level ticket hall near Court Street over the District Line platforms,
and it will also be possible to provide a ticket hall at Cambridge Heath Road should the need arise.”