Visiting London? The City’s New Crossrail High-Speed Railway Is Open

Anyone visiting London will now find getting around the city is much faster and easier. This comes after the city’s new high-speed railway, dubbed Crossrail, opened on May 24, 2022. Meanwhile, the first phase of what is also known as the new Elizabeth Line was delayed for three years by testing and budget issues and, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic.

London’s high-speed Crossrail opens

Pretty soon, any passengers flying into London’s Heathrow Airport will be able to zip across the city in minutes. This comes after the introduction of England’s capital, London’s new high-speed rail line. While the introduction of the new high-speed railway was delayed, it was opened by Transport for London (TfL) just ahead of Queen Elizabeth’s jubilee celebrations.

The new project looks to dramatically improve transport links in Southeast England. In fact, Crossline will cut journey times and increase accessibility with new stations, as well as longer and more spacious trains.

Where does Crossrail run?

The new Crossrail connects east with west across the city. In fact, it runs under the streets of central London, the financial districts, the Docklands and the West End. Meanwhile, the service also connects commuter towns in Southeast England as well as major transport hubs like Heathrow Airport.

Traveling across London will also be much quicker and easier, especially for those arriving at London Heathrow. In fact, once that phase of the line opens in autumn, the new service will take passengers to Canary Wharf in the center of the city in only 38 minutes. This cuts an hour off the time it currently takes on the original underground system. Meanwhile, it is also two hours less than traveling in a taxi to central London from the airport during rush hour.

Moreover, traveling time from Paddington to Canary Wharf will be reduced to 17 minutes, rather than more than 30 minutes that it currently takes on the Tube.

The new Crossrail timetable

In the first phase, Crossrail will run 12 trains per hour from 6:30 am to 11 pm, Monday to Saturday. Meanwhile, on Sundays engineers will continue work on the lines. During the launch phase, Crossrail will offer a service in each direction between Abbey Wood in southeast London and Paddington in central London.

Autumn will see the Abbey Wood line running to Reading and Heathrow via Canary Wharf. Moreover, additional services will be offered from Shenfield in Essex to Paddington at around the same time.

When will the full schedule be running?

It will be at least a year for the full schedule to be up and running. In May 2023, up to 24 trains an hour will run in each direction across the whole rail network.

Meanwhile, passengers, including tourists, will be able to plan their rail journey using the TfL Go app and Journey Planner ahead of the railway opening.

Once everything is up and running, traveling around London, which has always been a chore in the past, will be quick and easy.