The Anonymous Widower

Abbey Wood To Romford In Forty Minutes

I didn’t believe this figure when I calculated it yesterday, so I’m laying it out properly.

Crossrail have said that the two Eastern branches of the line;Abbey Wood and Shenfield will both run a dozen trains an hour.

• Whitechapel to Abbey Wood would take 15 minutes
• Whitechapel to Canary Wharf would take 3 minutes
• Whitechapel to Romford would take 24 minutes
• Whitechapel to Shenfield would take 38 minutes
• Whitechapel to Stratford would take 5 minutes

These times are from Crossrail’s journey time calculator.

But obviously, when changing trains at Whitechapel to go from say Abbey Wood to Romford, you’d have to wait for the next train going the other way.

So as there are twelve trains an hour in the peak, that would mean a wait of up to five minutes.

Or would it?

All the trains on Crossrail will be tightly controlled to keep to an exact schedule, so that twenty-four trains an hour can go through the core tunnel between Whitechapel and Paddington. Think Victoria Line with full-size trains carrying fifteen hundred people a train.

So if it was timed that trains from Abbey Wood turned up at Whitechapel at 0, 5, 10, 15 etc. minutes past the hour and trains left Whitechapel for Shenfield at say 1, 6, 11, 16 etc. you’d have a minute to walk a few metres across the platform to await the arrival of your onward train.

Trains from Shenfield could arrive at Whitechapel at 2, 7, 12, 17 etc. with trains leaving for Abbey Wood at 3, 8, 13, 18 etc.

Obviously, the flow of trains to and from the West would have to be at precise frequency of twenty-four trains per hour or one train every two and a half minutes.

I think trains could be timed to the second!

These train times of mine are just speculation, but I can’t see why the interchange at Whitechapel needs to take more than a minute.

So adding up the times to Abbey Wood and Romford from Whitechapel with a minute for the change gives 15+24+1 = 40.

Stratford to Canary Wharf would take 3+5+1 = 9, which is the same time as on the Jubilee Line.

The East of London doesn’t know the revolution that will be happening to their lives.

Whitechapel station will truly be the Jewel In The East and one of the most important transport interchanges in the UK, let alone London.

April 11, 2016 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Crossrail, Good Design, Trains