The first stage of the new line “Elizabeth”, also known as Crossrail, opened on May 24 after a three-year delay caused by testing and budget issues, and then by the pandemic.
The project promises to significantly improve transport links in the South East of England, reduce travel times and increase accessibility with new stations and longer, more spacious trains.
Crossrail connects east to west, passing under the streets of central London's Docklands with the ExCel exhibition center and London City Airport, the financial districts, the West End, as well as suburbs in the southeast of England and major transport hubs, including Heathrow Airport.
Traveling around the capital will become much faster and easier, especially for passengers arriving at Heathrow, who can reach Canary Wharf in central London in just 38 minutes. This section of the line will open in autumn. Compared to today, the savings will be an hour. Compared to a taxi, it's two.
The trip from Paddington to Canary Wharf will be reduced to 17 minutes, compared to over 30 minutes by tube currently.
Initially, Crossrail will operate 12 trains per hour from 6:30 am to 11:00 pm Monday through Saturday, while engineering work on the line will continue on Sundays. During the launch phase, service will be launched between Abbey Wood in south-east London and Paddington in central London.
In the fall, the Abbey Wood line will run to Reading and Heathrow via Canary Wharf. Additional trains from Shenfield in Essex will connect to Paddington at around the same time.
The full schedule will not come into effect until May 2023, when the entire network will run up to 24 trains per hour in each direction .