Took my nephew out on a trip over the central section of the Elizabeth Line yesterday... Great to see the new line finally open and on the way back to Abbey Wood bumped into a certain Ms Vicki Pipe! Had a few minutes nattering then home in the rain
I watched the opening of the new line on the news from Germany, the "Queen" herself was there (amazing to be so fit at 96)! Looks as if the new trains have pantographs and run in overhead line operation, so no third rail is needed. Found a map online, maybe it's helpful for rail fans from London.
Yeah, that was the ceremonial opening last week. Yesterday was the first "in service" public use day for the central core part (Abbey Wood to Paddington or "the new bit")(the bits from Paddington to Reading and Liverpool Street to Shenfield aren't new lines, but TfL have taken over their operation and rebranded them Elizabeth Line as of yesterda (TfL rail before that)) Yup, the Class 345 are OHLE powered, with the new platforms at Abbey Wood being OHLE and the old ones remaining 3rd rail. There's a little wooden fence demarking the two areas of responsibility
Paddington to Reading is well-known from GWR in TSW, so it sounds familiar. That means that the designation "Elizabeth Line" is the new brand name for the former TfL Rail and includes three former routes through London.
Not quite. Shenfield to Liverpool Street is formerly part of Greater Anglia, but is now operated by TfL rail as the Elizabeth Line, Eastern leg Paddington to Reading is formerly part of Great Western, but is now operated by TfL rail as the Elizabeth Line, Western leg (including services which terminate at Hayes & Harlington) Paddington to Heathrow (T2,3,4 & T5) were formerly operated as "Heathrow Connect", but is now operated by TfL rail as the Elizabeth Line, Heathrow leg Paddington (Elizabeth Line) to Abbey Wood through the central section is the brand new bit that's been built over the last few years and it's that bit I travelled on yesterday As is stands the "old lines" are still running into the "old stations" so Reading & Heathrow to Paddington are still going to Paddington Mainline Platforms 12 and higher, and Shenfield to Liverpool Street is going into Liverpool Street Mainline (I believe platforms 17 and up) From later this year (October onwards) trains will move from the mainline platforms down to the Elizabeth Line platforms and that's when you'll be able to go from Abbey Wood to Heathrow or Shenfield to Reading without changing (and the maps won't have those interchange markers at the mainline stations that they do right now)
Same tracks. What we see in game as the class 166 runs have been replaced with the 345 (calling at all stations to Heathrow or semi fast to Reading) The 166s have been displaced to the Bristol area which displaced the 150s to west wales and South West England which killed off the Pacers
Like many people who enjoyed the “All The Stations” and related series, I was sad to hear that Vicki and Geoff have split up
Do the Heathrow Connect services share track with the Heathrow Express? I have no idea how the latter has any business at all, clearly it does though.
The GWR line out of paddington is a 4 line mainline with the 2 southern tracks being "fast" and the 2 northern ones "slow", so on this part of the route the Heathrow Connect services would leave Paddington from the high numbered platforms, onto the slow lines and stay there until Hayes and Harlington which is just before airport junction. A ramp then takes these trains up and over the fast lines and onto the Heathrow spur The HEx trains had specific platforms at Paddington (I believe 6 & 7) and went straight out onto the fast lines, staying there til Airport junction (ie not stopping anywhere) From Airport junction you go into a tunnel which splits. HEx calls at Heathrow T2 and then onto T5. Heathrow Connect (now Liz Line) go to EITHER T2 then T4 OR T2 then T5 The latter does business because it runs every 15 minutes, it 15 minutes end to end and is £25, which isn't much when you consider how much it costs to fly in. The Elizabeth line trains take 35 minutes, and of course the trains are NOT set up for luggage etc (and still costs more than a normal train journey because of a heathrow "weighting" on the fares of about £7. The line between Heathrow and Airport junction is owned by the airport itself rather than Network rail)
Impressive and if DTG Third Party Just Trains makes Elizabeth Line the core section is ATO CBTC overlaid on ETCS with Platform Screen Doors. If not used to Class 345 braking curve on the core section you will get a game-ending Stop Signal Overrun US NTSB terminology for UK RAIB In-Game Signal Passed at Danger service failure message. Speaking of the next train do you need to wait for 2-3 minutes from the departing train to the next train in the core section or not?
Doesn't this presume that the player will use the same acceleration and braking curve as the auto driver would? I somehow doubt they would but also it doesn't automatically mean that players would always miss the stop and SPAD As of now trains are every 5 minutes, but trains are only running the Abbey Wood to Paddington run. From later this year they'll add in the Shenfield trains and then it'll be every 2½ minutes and these will extend out onto the Great Western leg rather than turning around just west of Paddington (EL)
I had to get from Liverpool Street to Euston yesterday so I decided to take a detour via the new line. I was taken back by just how spacious everything is.
I had a trip to London on Saturday to sample it. Very impressed with how modern it all feels, not to mention how quick and convenient it is. Coming from South Wales whenever I'm staying in London I typically stay in a hotel in the Paddington area, so it's super convenient having such a quick and easy way to get to Tottenham Court Road and East London. It's kinda nuts that it's now quicker to get from Paddington to Liverpool Street than it is to get from Paddington to King's Cross or even Euston.
Very impressive, if a little sterile. ( I like my railroads to be a bit scruffier. That's why I'm partial to NTP, TVL, LIR and similar lines.). On a separate note, how in the world does the UK manage to finance these enormous projects like the Elizabeth and HS2? Are taxes really high over there? Does the government have a blank check to build whatever it wants? Over here ( in the US ), it's hard enough to get a new " no parking "sign past the taxpayers and taxing authorities, let alone a new commuter railroad. Plus how do the folks " up north " feel about paying for London's shiny new subway?
Can't speak for those up North, however as a native of the Welsh valleys with our abysmal transport it did slightly rub me the wrong way in that regard. We've had to put up with aging 150s for far too long on Valley line services, and the infrastructure has barely changed in the past two decades. It's true that the South Wales Metro project is underway but TfW's service is still inexcusably bad. I genuinely can't remember the last time I had a train home that was on time.
OK, this is a long one... Many projects in the UK are built on "public . private finance" initiatives. When the route was first suggested they had to state a business case for the project (how much money in, how they would make money out again) and a lot of that money came from private investors or loan capital. How do they make money back? Well one thing London is really good at it charging companies fairly good tax rates, but investing those things back into Capital infrastructure. Very little of the money for crossrail came from national taxes, with the bulk coming from London council tax, business rates and corporation tax. The Mayor of London and the Lord Mayor of the City of London both signed off on Crossrail as a project so they had the backing of all three controlling entities (factoring in the UK Government which is also the English National government)(Yes I realise it's confusing, but hey the states can't even make national laws without involving state legislature and the supreme court...) See, that would be different. We do have planning permissions which are operated at a local council level, but these can be superceded at national level IF it can be proved to be in the national interest. A sort of process of hearings would be organised to make the case, arguments are made and things either get approved or they don't. An example is a new tunnel under the Thames river a few miles from me. There is a definite case FOR it, but some are against it for their own reasons and that process is now in it's fifth review. A street sign would be simply up to the local council, and for the most part they make those decisions without contest. As I said above, very little national money was used. That was mainly in the consultation period years ago. The remainder is all on loans or taxes based in London alone, so the people who might feel slighted would be those in South London or up North of London where Crossrail may not help them at all... and of course the people of Berkshire and Essex don't pay taxes into London at all, so they're getting a cheap benefit! Unfortunately you can blame Cardiff for a lot of that. The laws of reservation were amended in 2006 to allow for greater control of funding for railways that start, end and continue in Wales but they haven't really done anything with it. That and the whole mess of Arriva... I;m from Cardiff originally and would love to see the whole Valleys given better rail access, but there's not really the population and travel to support it without major overhauls and public transport integration
