Elizabeth Line and some additional bits about Transport for London

[Metra Electric Rider]

So how is the Elizabeth Line faring with the dusting of snow? Hopefully it's not the "wrong" kind of snow that shuts the underground down...

 

[user 6862]

No idea how it's faring today but it is affected by the upcoming strikes. When it runs on the overground/mainline track it is only working through the middle of the day, not early or late due to signal staff not working.

We were supposed to use it tomorrow (Tuesday) evening from Heathrow to Brentwood, Essex, but will now use Piccadilly Line, transfer Holborn to the Central Line out to Newbury Park tube station and a taxi from there to Brentwood.

 

[user 6862]

Elizabeth Line end to end, a little more information.

Arriving at London Heathrow Airport we had researched that the EL was working over it's full length, but not sure it was continuous or if we had to change trains.
The Transport for London (TfL) website stated we could ride from Heathrow to Liverpool Street station where we would transfer to another EL from there to the terminus at Shenfield, Essex. Our journey was further than Shenfield and under any circumstance we would have to change to Greater Anglia Overground/Mainline services there.

What happened was this. The EL trains running out of Heathrow had 2 destinations, Liverpool St and Abbey Wood, AW was the terminus of the southern arm of the eastern end of the EL system, Liverpool St was shown on last week's route guide as the transfer for Shenfield. Both destinations arrive at Liverpool St.

The southern and northern arms split at Whitechapel, to the east of Liverpool St, not as shown on the older TfL maps at Liverpool St., not sure when this happened.

We gambled that if we took an Abbey Wood train we could transfer at Whitechapel and not Liverpool St., while hoping that the EL from Liverpool St to Shenfield would stop at the same Whitechapel platform as we had bags and a few souvenirs to lug from our round the world trip.
We both know Liverpool St station well and there are still many Victorian style stairs and overpasses to negotiate, hard work with bags.

The Whitechapel EL platform is the new style, more roomy in all dimensions than a standard London Tube platform and much more accessible, including platforms exactly level with the EL car floor and almost no gap.

It worked!
EL from Heathrow to Abbey Wood, transfer at Whitechapel, 3 minute wait and the EL from Liverpool St to Shenfield arrives, just so easy for such a long journey.

I guess one day the trains will run end to end for Shenfield-Heathrow too, but until they do this is a very easy alternative.

Sorry it is so convoluted, still groggy from travelling.

 

[JontyMort]

Elizabeth Line end to end, a little more information.

Arriving at London Heathrow Airport we had researched that the EL was working over it's full length, but not sure it was continuous or if we had to change trains.
The Transport for London (TfL) website stated we could ride from Heathrow to Liverpool Street station where we would transfer to another EL from there to the terminus at Shenfield, Essex. Our journey was further than Shenfield and under any circumstance we would have to change to Greater Anglia Overground/Mainline services there.

What happened was this. The EL trains running out of Heathrow had 2 destinations, Liverpool St and Abbey Wood, AW was the terminus of the southern arm of the eastern end of the EL system, Liverpool St was shown on last week's route guide as the transfer for Shenfield. Both destinations arrive at Liverpool St.

The southern and northern arms split at Whitechapel, to the east of Liverpool St, not as shown on the older TfL maps at Liverpool St., not sure when this happened.

We gambled that if we took an Abbey Wood train we could transfer at Whitechapel and not Liverpool St., while hoping that the EL from Liverpool St to Shenfield would stop at the same Whitechapel platform as we had bags and a few souvenirs to lug from our round the world trip.
We both know Liverpool St station well and there are still many Victorian style stairs and overpasses to negotiate, hard work with bags.

The Whitechapel EL platform is the new style, more roomy in all dimensions than a standard London Tube platform and much more accessible, including platforms exactly level with the EL car floor and almost no gap.

It worked!
EL from Heathrow to Abbey Wood, transfer at Whitechapel, 3 minute wait and the EL from Liverpool St to Shenfield arrives, just so easy for such a long journey.

I guess one day the trains will run end to end for Shenfield-Heathrow too, but until they do this is a very easy alternative.

Sorry it is so convoluted, still groggy from travelling.

Yes, the line is now operating over its full length - albeit in what might be termed “overlap” mode. This change happened in December. Trains from Reading and Heathrow now run through Paddington - i.e. the low level Elizabeth Line platforms - to the central section and on through Liverpool Street (low level) and Whitechapel to Abbey Wood. The Shenfield branch at the eastern end branches off east of Whitechapel at a grade-separated junction, and eventually emerges to pick up the traffic that used to go into and out of Liverpool Street terminus.
In practice, therefore, if your train is for the “wrong“ branch you can change at any station from Paddington to Whitechapel inclusive and just wait on the same platform for one that is going where you want to.
Apart from a very few early morning/late evening affairs, all working into and out of the terminus platforms at Paddington and Liverpool Street has been eliminated.
Full through running is supposed to be coming in May.

 

[jiml]

I'm looking forward to riding for the first time next month - hoping to go from Terminal 5 to Canary Wharf. It looks like that is now possible on 30 minute intervals and reasonably priced compared to the alternatives. The TFL transport planner still advocates taking the Heathrow Express to Paddington first, at considerable extra cost.

 

[JontyMort]

I'm looking forward to riding for the first time next month - hoping to go from Terminal 5 to Canary Wharf. It looks like that is now possible on 30 minute intervals and reasonably priced compared to the alternatives. The TFL transport planner still advocates taking the Heathrow Express to Paddington first, at considerable extra cost.

Readers of these threads will look longingly on bona fide timetables…

https://content.tfl.gov.uk/elizabeth-line-december-2022.pdf for now

and…

https://content.tfl.gov.uk/elizabeth-line-timetable-may-2023.pdf for the summer.

As you surmise, it’s currently xx01 and xx31 from Terminal 5, getting you to Canary Wharf in just under an hour. Heathrow Express looks an expensive irrelevance from here on. Funnily enough, in the May timetable, it looks as if all of the T5 trains go to Shenfield, so a change will be necessary for Canary Wharf. But changing in the central section isn’t really a problem - there’s a vast amount of space.