Elizabeth Line, London’s New East-to-West Railway, Set to Open in June

By Kurt Stolz on 22 March 2022
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An older tube station in London

London’s new Elizabeth Line railway, which was originally slated to open in 2020, will begin serving passengers in June of this year.

Originally called the London Crossrail, the city’s new east-west railway, will be called the Elizabeth line.  It is a 73-mile (117-kilometer) rail line that, in the west, will divide into two branches, namely to Reading and stations at Heathrow Airport, and in the east to Abbey Wood and Shenfield.

A train that runs across London from east to west was first proposed in 1830, but it has taken almost 200 years to come to fruition.

The Elizabeth line will serve around 250 million passengers per year.  It makes stops at 41 stations along the full route, ten of which were newly built.  The other 30 are refurbishments of existing stations.

Wi-Fi service will be available on the platforms as well as on board the trains.

The Elizabeth line has sliding doors at the edge of the platform to keep people from falling, or jumping, onto the tracks.  They also separate the cooler airflow in the tunnels from the air in the station.

Trains on the Elizabeth line are air-conditioned, unlike most London Underground trains.

The carriages used on the Elizabeth line are bright and spacious.  They are 1.5 times bigger than trainsets used on other tube lines in the city.  The 656-foot-long (200-meter-long) Class 345 trains are already running on the west from Paddington to Reading and Heathrow, and to the east from Shenfield to Liverpool Street as Tfl. Rail, but these will be rebranded to the Elizabeth line once that line’s services start to operate from Paddington to Abbey Wood.

The carriages, which offer easier and faster boarding with three sets of double doors and clear areas around the doors, are fitted with intelligent LED lighting with an ambient dimming feature and provide real-time travel information via a display in each carriage.  Each carriage also has four dedicated wheelchair spaces as well as separate multi-use spaces for luggage and strollers.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)

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