Extending The Elizabeth Line – Thoughts On The Maximum Frequency In The Central Tunnel
The Wikipedia entry for the Elizabeth Line, says this about the indicative timetable after the 6th November 2022.
The indicative timetable consists of the following services on the Elizabeth line during peak hours: there will be 24 trains per hour (tph) in each direction in the central section (Paddington to Whitechapel): of these, 12 will run between Shenfield and Paddington, 6 will run between Abbey Wood and Heathrow, and 6 between Abbey Wood and either Reading or Maidenhead. Some trains on the Reading branch will not stop at all stations. Passengers travelling between stations west of Paddington and those on the north-eastern branch will need to change trains in the central section. Changing trains at Hayes & Harlington will be required for travel between Hanwell, West Ealing or Acton Main Line and other stations on the Reading branch.
The north-eastern section via Stratford is expected to see an additional four trains per hour during peak times between Gidea Park and the existing main line Liverpool Street station’s high level terminating platforms. Since these trains run over existing above-ground lines from Liverpool Street to Stratford, they will not call at Whitechapel.
When you consider, that Dear Old Vicky can handle 36 tph in the Peak, I feel that at some point in the future, the Elizabeth Line will handle more trains in the Central Tunnel.
This article on London Reconnections, which is entitled The Ninety Second Railway: Making the Victoria The Most Frequent Metro In The World, gives a history of increasing the frequency on the Victoria Line.
This is a paragraph from the article.
Of course, having the trains is only one part of the requirement. As our editor John Bull is prone to point out, there comes a point where frequency is not about how many trains you can squeeze through the tunnels, but about how quickly you can get passengers onto and clear of, the platforms.
As a regular passenger on the Victoria Line, there are times, when you notice that there are queues for the escalators and in the passageways at certain stations.
The Victoria Line probably can’t go to forty tph without substantial work on several stations.
But as these pictures show, the Elizabeth Line has space.
The Central Tunnel stations also have step-free walk-across access to the trains.
On my many journeys on the Lizzie Line, I’ve yet to see any delays in boarding in the Central Tunnel.
Extra Terminals
At present, the Elizabeth Line has been designed to have these terminal stations.
- Abbey Wood
- Heathrow Terminal 4
- Heathrow Terminal 5
- Maidenhead
- Paddington
- Reading
- Shenfield
The capacity in the East must match the capacity in the West.
Possible terminals in the East could be.
- Beaulieu Park
- Gravesend
- Hoo
- Northfleet
- Southend Victoria
And in the West they could be.
- Bedwyn
- Newbury
- Oxford
- Swindon
The numbers must still match.
Extra services would probably best be added gradually with time, when a need was proven.
Conclusion
I feel that only three things will limit the frequency of Elizabeth Line trains through the Central Tunnel.
- A frequency that fits the passenger numbers and route preferences.
- The capacity of the terminals
- The ability for engineers to meet that frequency safely and at an affordable cost.
Given that at certain times of the day, the Elizabeth Line is busier than you would expect, I wouldn’t be surprised to see that frequency higher than that planned.
Ilford Station – 4th September 2022
Ilford station is now substantially complete.
Note.
- Because of testing, the Elizabeth Line was running through Platforms 1 and 2 at Ilford station.
- Platforms 3 and 4 are running a test service between Shenfield and Paddington.
- Train displays on Platform 3 are showing trains going to Paddington.
It would appear, that there’s still a bit of work to finish.
Extending The Elizabeth Line – Connecting North Kent Line Services To The Central Tunnel At Abbey Wood
This map from cartometro.com shows the track layout at Abbey Wood.
Note.
- The Elizabeth Line is shown in purple.
- The North Kent Line is shown in black.
- The North Kent Line platform to London is the Southernmost platform and is numbered 1.
- The North Kent Line platform from London is the other Southern platform and is numbered 2.
- The Elizabeth Line platforms are numbered 3 and 4.
- Platform 4 is the Northernmost platform.
At present the Elizabeth Line service to Abbey Wood station is twelve trains per hour (tph), with each platform handling six tph.
This picture shows trains in both Platform 3 and 4 looking towards the station buildings.
Note.
- Platform 3 is on the right.
- Platform 4 is on the left.
In Elizabeth Line To Ebbsfleet Extension Could Cost £3.2 Billion, I talk about this proposal as described in this article on Ian Visits.
One of the key features of Crossrail To Ebbsfleet (C2E) project is that instead of all trains terminating at Abbey Wood, trains will terminate as follows.
- Abbey Wood – 4 tph
- Northfleet – 4 tph
- Gravesend – 4 tph
This will mean that 8 tph would pass through Abbey Wood station.
- Platform 4 could certainly handle the four tph that terminated on the Elizabeth Line.
- Platform 3 would need to handle eight tph in both directions or sixteen tph to fulfil the proposed C2E service.
- This would be one train every 225 seconds.
I believe that digital signalling could handle this easily and safely.
I am fairly sure that the track layout at Abbey Wood allows eight tph to go both ways between the North Kent Line and the Elizabeth Line Central Tunnel.
The Maximum Capacity At Abbey Wood Station
Because of the current track layout at Abbey Wood, I believe that without track modifications, Abbey Wood station will not be able to handle more than 12 tph.
Extending The Elizabeth Line – Connecting Great Eastern Main Line Services To The Central Tunnel
If say it was ever needed to run a train between Ipswich or Southend Victoria stations and the Central Tunnel of the Elizabeth Line, three things must be possible.
Trains Would Have To Be Compatible With The Central Tunnel Of The Elizabeth Line
As any train would have to be compatible with the platform-edge doors in the central tunnel of the Elizabeth Line, the trains would have to be dimensionally identical to the current Class 345 trains.
- Nine cars
- Possibility of lengthening to ten cars.
- 204.73 metres long.
- 6 sets of doors per carriage
- Ability to run under full digital signalling.
I covered this in detail in Extending The Elizabeth Line – High Speed Trains On The Elizabeth Line.
Trains Would Need A 100 mph Capability To Travel On The Fast Lines Of The Great Eastern Main Line
They would be designed for a higher speed of at least 100 mph, to enable running on the fast lines.
The faster running would ease scheduling of the trains.
Effectively, the train would be a Class 345 train with more features and considerably more grunt.
Trains Must Be Able To Connect Between The Fast Lines And The Central Tunnel Of The Elizabeth Line At Stratford
This map from cartometro.com shows the track layout at Stratford.
Note.
- The Elizabeth Line is shown in black and purple.
- The Elizabeth Line to Shenfield goes through Platform 8 at Stratford station and Platform 2 at Maryland station.
- The Great Eastern Main Line to Shenfield goes through Platform 10 at Stratford station and Platform 4 at Maryland station.
- The Stratford country end crossovers allow a train using the Elizabeth Line Central Tunnel to go through Platform 8 at Stratford station and Platform 4 at Maryland station before continuing on the Great Eastern Main Line.
- The Elizabeth Line to Central London goes through Platform 1 at Maryland station and Platform 5 at Stratford station.
- The Great Eastern Main Line to Central London goes through Platform 3 at Maryland station and Platform 9 at Stratford station.
- The Stratford country end crossovers allow a train using the Great Eastern Main Line to go through Platform 3 at Maryland station and Platform 3 at Stratford station before continuing through the Elizabeth Line Central Tunnel.
I am fairly sure that the track layout at Stratford allows trains to go both ways between Great Eastern Main Line and the Elizabeth Line Central Tunnel.
Extending The Elizabeth Line – Connecting Great Western Main Line Services To The Central Tunnel
If say it was ever needed to run a train between Oxford or Swindon stations and the Central Tunnel of the Elizabeth Line, three things must be possible.
Trains Would Have To Be Compatible With The Central Tunnel Of The Elizabeth Line
As any train would have to be compatible with the platform-edge doors in the central tunnel of the Elizabeth Line, the trains would have to be dimensionally identical to the current Class 345 trains.
- Nine cars
- Possibility of lengthening to ten cars.
- 204.73 metres long.
- 6 sets of doors per carriage
- Ability to run under full digital signalling.
I covered this in detail in Extending The Elizabeth Line – High Speed Trains On The Elizabeth Line.
Trains Would Need A 125 mph Capability To Travel On The Fast Lines Of The Great Western Main Line
They would be designed for a higher speed of at least 110 or 125 mph, to enable running on the fast lines.
The faster running would ease scheduling of the trains.
Effectively, the train would be a Class 345 train with more features and considerably more grunt.
Trains Must Be Able To Connect Between The Fast Lines And The Central Tunnel Of The Elizabeth Line At Royal Oak
This map from cartometro.com shows the track layout at Royal Oak.
Note.
- The Elizabeth Line is shown in purple.
- Great Western Railway (GWR) tracks are shown in black.
- Where the Elizabeth Line shares the tracks with GWR services the tracks are shown in black and purple.
This map shows an enlargement of Kensal Green East Junction in the North-West corner of the previous map.
Note.
- The top pair of lines lead to the Elizabeth Line Depot at Old Oak Common.
- the pair of lines that are shown in black and purple handle Elizabeth Line and GWR local services.
- The pair of black lines are the Great Western Main Line.
- North Pole Depot is used by GWR for their Hitachi trains.
This map shows an enlargement between Ladbroke Grove Junction and Royal Oak.
Note.
- In the South-East corner of the map is Subway junction, which appears to have two crossovers for maximum flexibility.
- To the East of Subway junction the curved line indicates the Royal Oak Portal of the Elizabeth Line Central Tunnel.
- To the West of Subway junction, there is Paddington New Yard, where there is five tracks labelled CRL Eastbound, Turnback C, Turnback B, Turnback A and CRL Westbound from North to South.
- Turnback C, Turnback B and Turnback A are the three turnback sidings, where trains are turned back East through the Elizabeth Line Central Tunnel.
- CRL Eastbound and CRL Westbound can be followed across the map to the black and purple lines of the Elizabeth Line to the West of Ladbroke Grove junction.
- At present the Western section of the Elizabeth Line terminates in Paddington station. Crossovers at Portobello junction appear to connect the Western section of the Elizabeth Line into Paddington station.
- More crossovers also appear to connect the Great Western Main Line to the CRL Eastbound and CRL Westbound through Paddington New Yard.
I am fairly sure that the track layout at Royal Oak allows trains to go both ways between Great Western Main Line and the Elizabeth Line Central Tunnel.
I Can’t Wait Until The Sixth Of November
This morning, I wanted to go between Moorgate and Romford stations.
Because the Elizabeth Line is not fully joined up, I wanted to avoid a long walk.
So I had decided, that the best way to go would be.
- Hammersmith and City Line from Moorgate to Mile End.
- Central Line from Mile End to Stratford.
- Elizabeth Line from Stratford to Romford.
Note that both interchanges are cross-platform ones, so it is certainly a route with the minimum of walking.
When I got to Moorgate station, it appeared that there were problems with the Hammersmith and City Line, so assuming that things would be OK from Whitechapel, I took the Lizzie Line one stop to try my luck from there.
But my luck was out and after waiting for about twenty minutes in a stationary District Line train for a lift to Mile End station, I gave up and returned to the Lizzie Line, where I took a train to Canary Wharf station.
I’d changed between the Lizzie and Jubilee Lines before and wrote about it in Changing Trains At Canary Wharf Station – 13th June 2022.
I had not been impressed, as I’d found it a long walk.
But this time, I followed a route between the Eastern ends of both stations, which goes past Waitrose in the shopping centre. Opposite Waitrose was this stall.
That looks good for a pit stop. Badiani 1932 appear to have realised that London has a chronic shortage of ice cream and have opened a number of shops.
Once on the Jubilee Line, I finally got to Stratford and walked to the Lizzie Line for Romford Station.
What Had Caused All The Delays?
It appeared there had been a power supply problem on the Hammersmith and City Line.
Conclusion
Once Crossrail is fully open, it will be a bypass around problems like today.
Romford Station – 31st August 2022
Romford Station is now more-or-less complete for the Elizabeth Line.
I took these pictures today.
Note.
- The station now has lifts.
- Secure bicycle parking has been added.
- The ticket hall is a lot more spacious and it has three entrances to the street.
- Surprisingly, there were six positions for staff to sell tickets to customers.
- The new decor is a lot more plain with no marble.
This is a picture from 2016.
Will it be added later?
To Abbey Wood For An Ice Cream
Yesterday, I went to Abbey Wood station to see what was there.
If you continue along the Elizabeth Line platforms, you come to a ground level step-free entrance to the platforms. So I used this route and found a rather nice shop, where I had a proper ice cream.
We need more proper ice cream outlets in London.
Crossness
Abbey Wood station is probably the best access point for one of London’s best tourist attractions; Crossness. I visited Crossness during Open House and wrote about it in Open House – Crossness.
These are some pictures I took in 2012.
Crossness should be on everyone’s bucket list. The site is now managed by the Crossness Engines Trust.
But getting there by public transport is not easy.
In my view what is needed is either a shuttle bus from Abbey Wood station or perhaps modification to an existing route, so that it calls at Crossness.
The Joining Up Of The Elizabeth Line
I asked a station guy, when the three sections of the Elizabeth Line would be joined up.
He gave me a straight answer – The 6th of November.
This is twelve Sundays from today.
Would A Joint Development Of Thameslink And The Elizabeth Line Be A Cost-Effective Way To Improve London’s Rail Network?
The operation of Thameslink and The Elizabeth Line are more similar than many people think.
- Both have a central tunnel.
- On the Elizabeth Line, the central tunnel is between Paddington and Whitechapel stations, which always takes thirteen minutes.
- Trains on the Elizabeth Line run five minutes apart.
- On Thameslink, the central tunnel is between St. Pancras International and London Blackfriars stations, which always takes nine minutes.
- Trains on Thameslink run 3-4 minutes apart.
- There are no branches in the central tunnels.
- No other regular train services run through the central tunnels.
- Trains appear to be controlled very accurately to the timetable.
- Each train on both lines seems to take a similar time through their central tunnel.
I am by training a Control Engineer and this is not surprising, as if you want to get the most number of trains down a tunnel, they should all take the same time and be equally spaced.
- As there are twelve trains per hour (tph) on the Elizabeth Line, the five minute interval is to be expected.
- As there are twenty tph on Thameslink, the 3-4 minute interval is to be expected.
It should be noted that the Victoria Line was fully opened in 1971.
- It has a single central tunnel with no branches.
- The line is used exclusively by Victoria Line trains.
But when new faster trains and automatic train control (ATO) were introduced, it enabled the train frequency to be increased from 27 to 33 tph.
By comparison to the Victoria Line, I believe that increased frequencies of trains through Thameslink and The Elizabeth Line should be possible.
The Elizabeth Line Frequency
The Wikipedia entry for the Elizabeth Line gives a central tunnel frequency of 24 tph, consisting of the following services.
- 12 tph – Shenfield and Paddington
- , 6 tph – Abbey Wood and Heathrow
- 6 tph – Abbey Wood and either Reading or Maidenhead
Note, in Extending The Elizabeth Line – High Speed Trains On The Elizabeth Line, I said this.
Because of the current track layout at Abbey Wood, I believe that without track modifications, Abbey Wood station will not be able to handle more than 12 tph.
So will Abbey Wood be restricted to 12 tph for some years?
It does appear to me, that to increase the frequency through the Elizabeth Line’s central tunnel, there will need to be services to new destinations in both the East and the West.
Various destinations have been suggested for the Elizabeth Line.
- Northfleet, Gravesend and possibly Hoo for Chatham.
- Billericay, Southend Airport and Southend Victoria.
- Tring and Milton Keynes
- Staines
I would also add.
- Chelmsford and the new station at Beaulieu.
- Didcot, Oxford and possibly Swindon.
There are a lot of possibilities.
The Thameslink Frequency
The Wikipedia entry for the Thameslink gives a central tunnel frequency of 20 tph, consisting of the following services.
- 2 tph – Cambridge and Brighton
- 2 tph – Cambridge and Maidstone East
- 2 tph – Peterborough and Horsham
- 2 tph – Bedford and Brighton
- 2 tph – Bedford and Gatwick Airport via Redhill
- 2 tph – Luton and Rainham via Greenwich
- 2 tph – St Albans City and Sutton via Wimbledon (loop)
- 2 tph – St Albans City and Sutton via Mitcham (loop)
- 2 tph – Kentish Town and Orpington via Catford
There are few suggestions for extra Thameslink services.
High Speed Trains On The Elizabeth Line
Some suggested destinations for the Elizabeth Line and some existing destinations for Thameslink are on high speed lines, that will be digitally-signalled in the next few years.
These destinations might be better served by an Elizabeth Line or Thameslink train with a better performance.
In Extending The Elizabeth Line – High Speed Trains On The Elizabeth Line, I explained my reasoning in detail.
Conclusion
A comprehensive survey needs to be carried out to identify what destinations should be added to the Elizabeth Line/Thameslink network.
Reasons for a new destination could possibly be employment, housing, leisure, tourism or other factors.
LED Lights Illuminate London’s Elizabeth Line
The title of this post is the same as that of this article on E & T Magazine.
This is the introductory paragraph.
Using LEDs to light up the stations, escalator shafts and concourses of the Elizabeth line was a bold move from Transport for London; especially as when they decided on its use back in the late 2000s, LED technology was yet to break into the lighting world.
These points are also made in the article.
- The Elizabeth line is one of the first sub-surface infrastructure projects to be lit entirely by LEDs.
- The decision to use the technology was based on industry evidence that its use will help reduce energy consumption and maintenance requirements.
- The Crossrail team used the light-grey, matt-textured, glass-reinforced concrete lining of the station and escalator tunnels to reflect light onto the passenger areas.
- The main lighting and the emergency lighting are incorporated in the wayfinding totems.
The article certainly explains how the excellent lighting was designed.
These pictures show some of the LED lighting on the Elizabeth Line.
Note that uplighters on the Underground are not new, as these pictures from Turnpike Lane station show.
They were installed in the 1930s and were also used on the Moscow Metro, where London Transport installed the escalators.
Lighting Can Calm Passengers
This is a paragraph from the article.
Both Kerrigan and Clements agree that the lighting infrastructure makes the Elizabeth line unique to all its predecessors seen across the London Underground and that they have met their goal to create a soothing environment to enhance the passenger experience. “We wanted to create a relaxed commuting environment that is the opposite to the poorly lit and cramped environment of the Central line, for example,” Clements admits. “And we believe that the lighting has a massive amount to do with this.”
Does this explain why passengers seem generally calm?
The Anonymous Widower 