The Elizabeth line in London will open on the 24th May 2022, with full services across the entire route introduced by May 2023.
The new railway being delivered by Crossrail Ltd will run for over 100km - 42km of which are new and in tunnels through central London from Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east to Reading and Heathrow in the west. The Elizabeth line has a total of 41 stations including 10 major new stations.
The new railway will increase central London's rail capacity by 10% and will carry more than 200 million passengers per year. It is also the first-time national rail lines to the east and west of London have been connected through an underground metro system.
The Elizabeth line consists of three sections - the newly built central section between Paddington and Abbey Wood, and the east and west surface sections. Part of the complexity of the Elizabeth line, and the reason that testing and systems integration is a very important part of the process is that each of the three sections has a different signaling system. All three signaling systems need to successfully work together, including smoothly transitioning from one to another whilst trains are moving across London.
The Elizabeth line will initially operate as three separate railways, with services from Reading, Heathrow and Shenfield connecting with the central tunnels from autumn this year.
Click here for more details, here and uk/40 for the tunnelbuilder archive. Visit https://www.crossrail.co.uk/ and https://tfl.gov.uk/. 19/22.
