Queen Elizabeth II visits Paddington Station in London on May 17, 2022, to mark the completion of the Crossrail project. Photographer: Andrew Matthews/Pool/AFP

Here’s How Crossrail Will Transform London Travel

May 24, 2022, 12:00 AM EDT

Today London launches the biggest extension of its public transport system this century. Dubbed the Elizabeth Line—and launched to coincide with celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II’s 70th year on the throne—the long-awaited £18.9 billion link is much more than just a new railway line.

Sources: Modified map of Transport for London services by sameboat, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0; Crossrail; Transport for London

First approved in 2008, the heavy rail line will dramatically improve public transport coverage of the city, says Transport for London (TfL), slashing journey times, providing substantial extra capacity and making the city more altogether more accessible. By extending the transport system to areas that were previously much slower to access and creating new central hubs for transfers to the Tube, the line could also reshape the way people navigate the city. Here are five of the key changes the Elizabeth Line should deliver:

Quicker Journeys

Running along an east-west axis, the new link should make many London journeys altogether speedier. Travel times from Southeast London’s Abbey Wood to the major western rail terminus of Paddington, for example, will be cut by almost half to 29 minutes. Journeys from southeastern Woolwich—currently one of London’s worst-served areas for train connections—to London’s main eastern rail terminus at Liverpool Street will be halved to 15 minutes, while connections between Farringdon, in London’s financial district, and the newer dockland business hub of Canary Wharf will be slashed from 24 minutes to just ten. While all Londoners stand to benefit from these connections, business travelers will be particularly well-served, with connections from Heathrow Airport to Canary Wharf soon to be possible in 44 minutes.

Note: Durations calculated for travel on a Monday at 9AM, include transit and exclude estimated time to enter or exit stations.

Sources: Citymapper; OpenStreetMap contributors

Easier Commute

An additional 1.5 million people will be within a 45-minute commuting distance from the capital’s major commercial and business centers of the West End, the City and Canary Wharf, up from 5 million currently according to Crossrail.

Despite lying outside the boundaries of Greater London, services to Heathrow Airport and the towns of Reading and Shenfield are already running under TfL Rail, the city transport authority lying under the control of London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan. The lines will initially operate as three separate railways, to be fully connected by Autumn.

Note: Map shows population weighted points for 2011.

Sources: Office of Rail and Road; Office for National Statistics; OpenStreetMap contributors

Before the pandemic, many London-area commuters were obliged to take crammed Tube carriages for parts of their journey. Riders from eastern Essex or western Berkshire, for example, had to get a suburban train to a rail terminus, then go down into the Tube to continue to their final destinations. With the Elizabeth Line connecting outer suburbs directly to a string of new stations in central London, many of those commuters should be able to go straight from their home stations to one within easy walking distance of their offices, without needing to transfer to the Tube. That stands to make towns like Slough, Romford and others more convenient for London-bound workers.

Note: Durations calculated for travel on a Monday at 9AM, include transit and exclude estimated time to enter or exit stations.

Source: Citymapper

The Elizabeth Line will also redraw the map of London’s central transport hubs.

To take an example: Farringdon Station—the central London terminus of the world’s first underground railway, which opened in January 1863—was, before the Elizabeth Line’s opening a busy but not necessarily pivotal station in London’s transport network. Thanks to the Elizabeth Line, it will now be a key interchange station, connecting the line not just to the Tube but with high frequency trains to London’s northern and southern suburban hinterland that are routed through the station. Farringdon will also now have direct links to St. Pancras International for Eurostar connections and to three major airports: Gatwick, Heathrow and Luton. Combined with the station’s existing Tube links, Farringdon will eventually be served by over 140 trains per hour at the busiest times.

Accessibility

London’s Tube system has never been an easy place to navigate for people with limited mobility. While around a third of Underground stations (and all stations on the Docklands Light Railway) currently have step-free access, many stations are accessed by long escalators and short stairways. The Elizabeth Line by contrast, will provide step-free access that could open up many routes into central London for people with disabilities. The 10 new stations in the central section of the line—as well as Heathrow—will have level access from platform to trains, and step-free access from street to train at nearly all other stations. The changes in speed and ease will be drastic for some. Given London’s population over 65 years old is expected to be 62% higher by 2040, the need for accessible stations is only going to grow.

A train at the platform at Farringdon station during trial operations on the Elizabeth Line on Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2022. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Volunteers exit a carriage onto a platform during a test run of an Elizabeth Line train at Paddington Station on March 13, 2022. Photographer: Niklas Halle’n/AFP

Previously, for example, a wheelchair user using public transport could only travel the two miles (3.2 km) from Paddington to Tottenham Court Road by taking two buses, with a journey time of 25 minutes. On the Elizabeth Line, this should be a five-minute journey.

Note: Durations calculated for travel on a Monday at 9AM, include transit and do not include time to enter or exit stations.

Sources: Citymapper; OpenStreetMap contributors

Less Congestion

Before the pandemic, the Tube at rush hour could be packed even at a rate of two trains per minute, with alternative Overground and commuter rail services often equally busy. Building a new link was one of the only ways for the city to increase capacity.

Elizabeth Line capacity will be greater than all others, with 200 metre long trains, accommodating up to 1,500 passengers. The Northern Line, by comparison, has a per train capacity of just 800. Twenty-four trains an hour will run on the line’s busiest section. That means a train every 2.5 minutes—a high volume but still less than the 34 trains per hour at peak times running on London’s busiest Tube link, the Victoria Line. Overall, the line is projected to accommodate 200 million passengers annually, increasing the capacity of London’s train network by 10%.

Source: Transport for London Elizabeth and Working Timetables

It is still unclear how much the pandemic will affect demand for the new line, as at least some former commuters will likely continue the habit of working partly from home into the near future. But with TfL’s daily ridership having recently recovered to 73% of pre-pandemic levels, the need for an increase of the transport system’s extent and capacity remains persuasive.

Source: Transport for London transport journeys and network demand

Faster Heathrow Access

For visitors to London, getting into town from Heathrow airport by train has long involved a choice between either traveling slowly or paying a lot for speed. While the airport is connected to the Tube, journeys into central London on the Underground can take up to an hour. Meanwhile, the Heathrow Express, a non-stop train service that connects Heathrow to Paddington Station in an impressive 15 minutes, costs £25 ($31) one way (or £18 if tickets are bought a month in advance), an especially high price given that Paddington Station has a not-especially convenient location on the edge of central London. With the Elizabeth Line’s inauguration, however, air passengers will need just 30 minutes and £5.50 to reach central London, and can disembark at a greater number of more convenient stations. People living in East London will also get a faster, transfer-free train service straight to Heathrow.

Note: Heathrow Terminals 2&3

Source: Citymapper

Coming after a challenging few years, the Elizabeth Line is also delivering another less tangible asset to London: something to be optimistic about. By streamlining travel across the city, the line will “turbo charge our recovery from the pandemic,” said Mayor Sadiq Khan, while TfL commissioner Andy Byford said it was a “game changer, not just for London but for the whole of the UK”. The Elizabeth Line may not solve all of the city’s transport issues at once, but despite the project’s delays and cost overruns, its arrival shows that London still has the ability to think big.