Getting around London just got a lot easier as the new £18.9 billion Elizabeth Line railway opened last week. Excitement in London is palpable for the new line, formerly called Crossrail, which was 13 years in the making.
Europe’s largest construction project, the Elizabeth Line comprises 73-miles of railway, with 41 stations—some new and some refurbished—with 10 of the stations located in central London. According to TfL (Transport for London), the new line will boost capacity by 10 percent and significantly cut journey times for east-west travel across London.
The line stretches from Reading in Berkshire and Heathrow Airport in west London to Abbey Wood in southeast London and Shenfield in Essex. Initially, the train will operate in three separate sections requiring a change at Paddington, but all should be integrated and seamless by the fall.
One of the biggest initial impacts for tourists is the connection to Heathrow, which will now take about 30 minutes from Paddington and cost the same as the Tube. Most journey times are nearly cut in half, according to travel app Citymapper, for example, travel between Liverpool Street and Paddington will be cut from 18 minutes to 10 minutes.
Initially, services in the central London section will run every five minutes between 6:30 a.m. and 11 p.m. Apart from during the Platinum Jubilee weekend June 2-5, 2022, the Elizabeth Line will not operate on Sundays to allow further testing and software updates to take place.
The trains themselves are also an upgrade from the London Tube with wider cars, air conditioning, and Wi-Fi. All of the stations are accessible, most are step-free from street to platform, and nine of the 10 new stations, plus Heathrow, will have step-free access from street to trains.
The cost to travel on the Elizabeth Line in central London will cost the same as equivalent Tube fares. Fares on services in the outer sections currently operated by TfL Rail will be unchanged. Travel to Heathrow is about £12.50 with some discounting for off-peak times.
All aboard!
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