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The Elizabeth line is a planned high-frequency suburban passenger service in London and its environs. It runs from Reading and Heathrow Central in the west to Abbey Wood and Shenfield in the east and was named in honour of Queen Elizabeth II. Central London will be crossed through tunnels which were constructed as part of the Crossrail project and run from Paddington on the Great Western Main Line to Stratford on the Great Eastern Main Line and Abbey Wood in southeast London.

The Crossrail project was approved in 2007, and construction began in 2009. Originally planned to open in 2018, the project was repeatedly delayed, including several months caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Once the line is fully operational in May 2023, the new nine-carriage Class 345 trains will run at frequencies in the central section of up to 24 trains per hour in each direction. At each end of its central core services, it will divide into two branches: in the west to Reading and to Heathrow Central; in the east to Abbey Wood and to Shenfield. In May 2015, services on a section of one of the eastern branches, between Liverpool Street and Shenfield, were transferred to TfL Rail; this precursor service also took control of Heathrow Connect in May 2018 and the Paddington to Reading line in December 2019.

The Elizabeth line will be operated by MTR Corporation (Crossrail) Ltd as a London Rail concession of Transport for London (TfL), in a similar manner to London Overground. TfL's annual revenues from the line were forecast in 2018 to be nearly £500million in 2022/23 and over £1billion from 2024–25.

History
In 2001 Cross London Rail Links (CLRL), a 50/50 joint-venture between Transport for London and the Department for Transport (DfT), was formed to develop and promote the Crossrail scheme, and also a Wimbledon–Hackney scheme. In 2003 and 2004, over 50 days of exhibitions were held to explain the proposals at over 30 different locations.

2005 Route Development
In 2005, ahead of Crossrail's hybrid bill submission, a number of feeder routes were considered by CLRL west of Paddington and east of Liverpool Street. It was viewed given the 24tph core frequency that two feeder routes each of 12tph could be taken forward.

In the west, a route to Maidenhead (later extended to Reading) and Heathrow Airport was selected. In the east, routes to Abbey Wood (curtailed from Ebbsfleet to avoid conflicts with the North Kent lines) and Shenfield were selected.

Approval
The Crossrail Bill 2005, a hybrid bill, went through Parliament. The Crossrail Bill Select Committee met between December 2005 and October 2007.

The Bill received royal assent on 22 July 2008 as the Crossrail Act 2008. In December 2008 it was announced that TfL and the DfT had signed the Crossrail Sponsors' Agreement. This committed them to financing the project, then projected to cost £15.9 billion, with further contributions from Network Rail, BAA and the City of London.

Construction
Work began on 15 May 2009 when piling works started at the future Canary Wharf station.

In March 2010, contracts were awarded to civil engineering companies for the second round of 'enabling work' including 'Royal Oak Portal Taxi Facility Demolition', 'Demolition works for Crossrail Bond Street Station', 'Demolition works for Crossrail Tottenham Court Road Station' and 'Pudding Mill Lane Portal'. In December 2010, contracts were awarded for most of the tunnelling work. To assist with the skills required for the Crossrail project, Crossrail opened in 2011 the Tunnelling and Underground Construction Academy in Ilford. The Academy was handed over to Transport for London in 2017, who have sub-contracted its management to PROCAT.

Boring of the railway tunnels was officially completed at Farringdon in June 2015 in the presence of the Prime Minister and the Mayor of London. Installation of the track was completed in September 2017. The ETCS signalling was scheduled to be tested in the Heathrow tunnels over the winter of 2017-18. The south east section of the infrastructure was energised in February 2018, with the first test train run between Plumstead and Abbey Wood that month. In May 2018 the overhead lines were powered up between Westbourne Park and Stepney, the installation of platform doors was completed, and video was released of the first trains travelling through the tunnels.

TfL Rail took over Heathrow Connect services from Paddington to Heathrow in May 2018.



At the end of August 2018, four months before the scheduled opening of the core section of the line, it was announced that completion was delayed and that the line would not open before autumn 2019.

In April 2019, it was announced that Crossrail would be completed between October 2020 and March 2021, two years behind schedule, and that it would not include the opening of the Bond Street station, one of ten new stations on the line. The London Assembly's transport committee concluded that Transport for London (TfL) played down the prospect of delays to the project in updates to Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, and called for TfL commissioner Mike Brown to consider his position. Crossrail said major challenges before completion included writing and testing the software that would integrate the train with three different track signalling systems, and installing equipment inside the tunnels.

In July 2019, it was announced that the line would not open in 2021, with TfL not expecting the full line from Heathrow to Shenfield to open until the early part of the 2023/24 financial year.

In August 2020, Crossrail announced that the central section would be ready to open "in the first half of 2022".

In May 2021 trial running commenced.

Route
In the west, the route connects with the Great Western Main Line at Royal Oak, west of Paddington, and runs to Hayes and Harlington, where it splits. One branch runs to Heathrow Central and Heathrow Terminal 4, both part of the TfL network since 2018, and Terminal 5; the other runs over the existing main line to Reading via Slough and Maidenhead.

The route's central section uses new east–west twin tunnels under central London, splitting into two branches at the eastern end. The tunnelled sections are altogether approximately 42 km in length.

In the east, the route splits east of Whitechapel at an underground junction. The north-eastern branch, part of the TfL network since 2015, emerges to join the existing Great Eastern Main Line via Stratford to Shenfield. The south-eastern branch runs through Canary Wharf then emerges from the tunnel at Custom House on a disused part of the North London Line, and continues under the River Thames to Abbey Wood.

Western branches
Paddington station will be a major interchange for the Elizabeth Line. The main western section runs on the Great Western Main Line from Reading to Paddington. Existing stations were refurbished and upgraded, including the provision of step-free access at all stations and platform lengthening for the new, longer trains.

A "dive-under" was constructed at Acton to allow passenger trains to pass slower freight trains leaving and entering a goods yard. It was completed in July 2016 and was brought into use in 2017.

The Heathrow spur has three stations – Heathrow Terminals 2 & 3, Heathrow Terminal 4 and Heathrow Terminal 5. It joins the main route at Airport Junction, between West Drayton and Hayes & Harlington. A flyover near Hayes & Harlington station will allow Heathrow Express trains to pass over the Elizabeth Line, avoiding delays caused by crossings.

The Crossrail project had been planned to terminate at Maidenhead, with an extension to Reading safeguarded. Various commentators advocated an extension further west as far as Reading because it was seen as complementary to the Great Western Electrification project which was announced in July 2009. A Reading terminus was also recommended by Network Rail's 2011 Route Utilisation Strategy. On 27 March 2014 it was announced that the line would indeed extend to Reading.

Central section
The central tunnels run from a portal just west of Paddington to Whitechapel, with further tunnelling to Stratford and to Canary Wharf.

There are new stations at, , , Farringdon, Liverpool Street and Whitechapel, with interchanges with London Underground and other National Rail services. The stations in the central section all have distinctive architecture at street level; at platform level stations have identical "kit-of-parts" architecture, including full height platform screen doors with integrated passenger information displays.

Due to the size and positioning of the new platforms, Farringdon station will also be connected to station, and Liverpool Street to Moorgate station.

Eastern branches
One of the two eastern sections runs underground from Whitechapel]] to Stratford, then on the surface on the existing main line. The service will replace the "Shenfield metro", with key stops at Ilford, Romford (for interchange with London Overground services to Upminster), Gidea Park (where some peak hour trains will start or terminate), and Shenfield.

The other eastern branch runs underground from Whitechapel to Abbey Wood via Canary Wharf, Custom House and Woolwich. This branch takes over a stretch of the former North London line built by the Eastern Counties and Thames Junction Railway, and connects it with the North Kent Line via a tunnel under the Thames at North Woolwich.

The Custom House to North Woolwich section involved a £50M investment to renovate and reuse the existing Connaught Tunnel

Name and identity
Crossrail is the name of the construction project and of the limited company, wholly owned by TfL, that was formed to carry out construction works.

The Elizabeth line is the name of the new service that will be seen on signage throughout the stations. It is named in honour of Queen Elizabeth II. The Elizabeth line logo will feature a Transport for London roundel with a purple ring and blue bar with white text.

TfL Rail is an intermediate brand name which was introduced in May 2015. It is used by TfL on services between Paddington and Heathrow Terminal 5 and Reading, as well as trains between Liverpool Street and Shenfield.

Tunnels
21 km of twin-bore tunnels were constructed by tunnel boring machines (TBM), each with an internal diameter of 6.2 m (compared with 3.81 m for the deep-level Victoria line). The wide-diameter tunnels allow for new rolling stock, which is larger than the traditional deep-level tube trains. The tunnels allow for the emergency evacuation of passengers through the side doors rather than along the length of the train.

The tunnels are made up of three main sections: a 15.39 km tunnel from Royal Oak portal near Royal Oak station to Victoria Dock portal near Custom House station, a 2.72 km tunnel from Pudding Mill Lane portal connecting to the longer tunnel at an underground junction at Stepney Green cavern, and a separate 2.64 km tunnel from Plumstead to North Woolwich underneath the Thames.

Crossrail has often been compared to Paris's RER system due to the length of the central tunnel.

Stations


Ten new stations will be built in the central and south east sections of the line, and 31 existing stations will be upgraded and refurbished. All stations will be fully equipped with CCTV and, due to the length of the platforms, train indicators will be above the platform-edge doors in central stations.

Although initially the trains will be 200 m long, platforms at the new stations in the central core are built to enable 240 m trains in case of possible future need. In the eastern section, Maryland and Manor Park will not have platform extensions, so trains will use selective door opening instead. At Maryland this is because of the prohibitive cost of extensions and the poor business case, and at Manor Park it is due to the presence of a freight loop that would otherwise be cut off.

A mock-up of the new stations was built in Bedfordshire in 2011 to ensure that their architectural integrity would last for a century. It was planned to bring at least one mock-up to London for the public to view the design and give feedback before final construction commenced.

It was announced in July 2017 that Crossrail services would be extended to Heathrow Terminal 5, meaning that all Heathrow terminals will have a Crossrail service when the full service commences. Trains between Paddington and Abbey Wood commence on 24 May 2022.

All 41 stations will be step-free, with 13 of these stations (the Central and Heathrow stations) having level access from the train to platforms.

Planned
As part of the High Speed 2 (HS2) rail link from London to Birmingham, a new station would be built at Old Oak Common between Paddington and Acton Main Line station. The new station would connect HS2 services with Crossrail and National Rail services on the Great Western Main Line, as well as London Overground services running through the area. The station would open with High Speed 2 in 2026, with preliminary construction beginning in 2019.

Rolling stock
Crossrail will operate the Class 345 trains. These are currently being used on the two interim TfL rail branches that will later become part of the Elizabeth line when it opens in May 2022. The requirement was for 65 trains, each 200 m long and carrying up to 1,500 passengers. The trains are accessible, including dedicated areas for wheelchairs, with audio and visual announcements, CCTV and speaker-phones connected to the driver in case of emergency. They will run at up to 90 mph on certain parts of the route.

In March 2011, Crossrail announced that five bidders had been shortlisted for the contract to build the Class 345 and its associated depot. One of the bidders, Alstom, withdrew from the process in July 2011. In February 2012, Crossrail issued an invitation to negotiate to CAF, Siemens, Hitachi and Bombardier, with tenders expected to be submitted by mid-2012. In 2013, Siemens also withdrew from the bid, but will provide signalling and control systems for Crossrail. In December 2013, the European Investment Bank (EIB) agreed to provide loans to Transport for London for the rolling stock of up to £500M. On 6 February 2014, it was announced that Canada's Bombardier had been awarded a £1bn contract to supply 66 trains, with an option for 18 more.

The first train entered service on 22 June 2017 on the current TfL Rail route between London Liverpool Street and Shenfield as a seven-carriage unit, since, before the platforms were lengthened, the complete nine-car sets could not be accommodated at Liverpool Street station.

In July 2017 an option for five more units was exercised taking the order to 70 units.

Electrification and signalling
Crossrail will use 25kV, 50Hz AC overhead lines, already in use on the Great Eastern and Great Western Main Lines.

The Heathrow branch started using the European Train Control System (ETCS) in 2020. The Automatic Warning (AWS) and Train Protection & Warning (TPWS) systems are used on the Great Western and Great Eastern Main Lines, with possible later upgrades to ETCS. Communications-based train control (CBTC) is installed in the central section and the Abbey Wood branch.

Depots
Crossrail will have depots in west London at Old Oak Common TMD, in south-east London at Plumstead Depot, and in east London at Ilford EMU Depot and at a new signalling centre at Romford in Havering, East London.

Services
Once fully opened, the Elizabeth line will run a familiar London Underground-style all-stops service in the central core section and eastern branches, but initial timetable plans suggest that several trains on the western branches will run semi-fast. Initial proposals suggest Acton Main Line, West Ealing and Hanwell will be served only by Heathrow T4-bound trains.

Like the outer sections of Thameslink, the Elizabeth line will share platforms and tracks with other services outside the tunnelled sections. Some run by other train companies will continue to call at various stations on the Great Western Main Line branch, and Heathrow Express will continue to run between Paddington and Heathrow stations.

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/Maidenhead branch will not stop at all stations. Therefore, travel between stations west of Paddington to/from the north-eastern branch will require leaving the train in the central section and a short wait for the next train. Also, travel between Hanwell, West Ealing or Acton Main Line to/from the Reading branch will require a change at Hayes & Harlington.

The north-eastern section via Stratford is expected to see an additional four trains per hour (tph) 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.

Timeline
Though the main tunnels under central London have not yet been opened, passenger operations on the outer branches of the Crossrail system have been transferred to TfL for inclusion in the Crossrail concession - this took place over several stages beginning May 2015. During this initial phase of operation, services are being operated by MTR under the TfL Rail brand. Following the practice adopted during the transfer of former Silverlink services to London Overground in 2007, TfL will carry out a deep clean of stations and trains on the future Elizabeth line route, install new ticket machines and barriers, introduce Oyster card and contactless payment, and ensure all stations are staffed. Existing rolling stock has been rebranded with the TfL Rail identity.

Ticketing
Ticketing is intended to be integrated with the other London transport systems, but Oyster pay as you go will not be accepted on the western section between West Drayton (the limit of TfL's Zone 6) and Reading, with only contactless cards valid there. Travelcards and concessionary passes will be valid within Greater London. Like TfL Rail's Heathrow service (formerly Heathrow Connect), trips to or from Heathrow Airport will be priced at a premium owing to the additional cost of using the rail tunnel between the airport and Hayes & Harlington, but Heathrow will be included within travelcards and daily/weekly fare capping as a Zone 6 station. Crossrail will be integrated with the Underground and National Rail networks, and it is planned to include it on the standard London Underground Map.

Passenger numbers
Crossrail has predicted annual passenger numbers of over 200 million from its opening; this is expected to relieve pressure on London Underground's lines, especially the Central line. Farringdon is expected to become one of the busiest stations in the UK, due to it being the key interchange station with Thameslink services. Once Crossrail is fully open, TfL expects total annual revenues from the line of nearly £500million per year in 2022/23 (its first full year of operation) and over £1billion per year from 2024/25.

Silvertown (London City Airport)
Although the Crossrail route passes very close to London City Airport, there will not be a station serving the airport directly. London City Airport has proposed the re-opening of Silvertown railway station, in order to create an interchange between the rail line and the airport. The self-funded £50m station plan is supported 'in principle' by the London Borough of Newham. Provisions for re-opening of the station were made in 2012 by Crossrail. However, it is alleged by the airport that Transport for London is hostile to the idea of a station on the site, a claim disputed by TfL.

In 2018, the airport's chief development officer described the lack of a Crossrail station as a "missed opportunity", but did not rule out a future station for the airport. The CEO stated in an interview that a station is not essential to the airport's success. In May 2019, the chief development officer confirmed discussions are ongoing about a station for the airport as part of the proposed extension to Ebbsfleet.

To Ebbsfleet and Gravesend
In the 2003 and 2004 consultations into Crossrail, the South East branch was proposed to go beyond Abbey Wood, running along the North Kent Line to Ebbsfleet, linking up with the (then under construction) Channel Tunnel Rail Link. However, prior to the submission of the Crossrail Hybrid Bill to Parliament in 2005, the branch was truncated at Abbey Wood to cut overall project costs. Although dropped from the main scheme, the route was safeguarded by the Department for Transport as far as Gravesend and Hoo Junction, protecting the route from development.

With the Crossrail project nearing completion in 2018, local MPs, council leaders and local businesses began lobbying the government to fund the development of a business case for the extension to Ebbsfleet, with the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan including the project into his Mayor's Transport Strategy. The Mayor's Transport Strategy estimated that an extension could assist in delivering 55,000 new homes and 50,000 new jobs planned along the route in Bexley and north Kent. In March 2019, the Government committed £4.8m on exploratory work into the extension as part of the Thames Estuary 2050 Growth Commission.

The following stations are on the protected route extension to Gravesend: Belvedere, Erith, Slade Green, Dartford, Stone Crossing, Greenhithe for Bluewater, Swanscombe, Ebbsfleet, Northfleet, and Gravesend.

To the West Coast Main Line
Network Rail's July 2011 London & South East Route Utilisation Strategy (RUS) recommended that a short railway line could be built to connect the West Coast Main Line (WCML) with the Crossrail route. This would enable train services that currently run between Milton Keynes Central and London Euston to be re-routed via Old Oak Common to serve central London, Shenfield and Abbey Wood. The report argued that this would free up capacity at Euston for the planned High Speed 2, reduce London Underground congestion at Euston, make better use of Crossrail's capacity west of Paddington, and improve access to Heathrow Airport from the north. Under this scheme, all Crossrail trains would continue west of Paddington, instead of some of them terminating there. They would serve Heathrow Airport (10 tph), stations to Maidenhead and Reading (6 tph), and stations to Milton Keynes Central (8 tph).

In August 2014, a statement by transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin indicated that the government was actively evaluating the extension of Crossrail as far as Tring and Milton Keynes Central, with potential Crossrail stops at Wembley Central, Harrow & Wealdstone, Bushey, Watford Junction, Kings Langley, Apsley, Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted, Tring, Cheddington, Leighton Buzzard and Bletchley. The extension would relieve some pressure from London Underground and London Euston station while also increasing connectivity. Conditions to the extension were that any extra services should not affect the planned service pattern for confirmed routes, as well as affordability. This proposal was shelved in August 2016 due to "poor overall value for money to the taxpayer".

To Staines
As part of the Heathrow Southern Railway scheme proposed in 2017, the western extent of the Crossrail route could be extended beyond Heathrow Airport to terminate at Staines. This extension would form part of a wider scheme to create new rail links in west London and Surrey serving Heathrow, and would require the construction of an extra platform at Staines station. This proposal has not been approved or funded.

To Southend Airport
Stobart Aviation, the company that operates Southend Airport in Essex, has proposed that Crossrail should be extended beyond Shenfield along the Shenfield–Southend line to serve Southend Airport and Southend Victoria. The company has suggested that a direct Heathrow-Southend link could alleviate capacity problems at Heathrow. The extension proposal has been supported by Southend-on-Sea City Council.