Elizabeth line timetable changes: New journey times as Crossrail project completed

Transport for London (TfL) has published the final version of the Elizabeth line timetable ahead of the opening of the last upgrade to the line this summer.

The third and final stage of the line’s opening on May 21 2023 will mean central London’s capacity will have increased by around 10%.

Since November 2022, the service has operated 22 trains an hour at peak times, and it will now increase to 24 per hour.

The new timetable also adds through trains from Shenfield to Heathrow Airport without passengers needing to change at Paddington and wait for a following train.

The first westbound train from Paddington will leave six minutes earlier at 4.36am and will arrive at Heathrow Terminal 5 by 5.04am.

From Shenfield and Stratford journeys will be about two minutes quicker, before journey times balance out to be the same as before after passing through tunnels on the way to Paddington.

The final timetable will remove any significant dwell times for trains between Paddington and Acton Main Line which have been in place since November 2022.

Howard Smith, TfL’s director of the Elizabeth line, said: “This Elizabeth line timetable change is delivering on the original plans for the service, providing a number of benefits to customers and improving connections to Heathrow Airport and across London.

“As well as increasing peak time services between Paddington and Whitechapel to mean a train roughly every 2.5 minutes in both directions, there will also be direct services from Shenfield in Essex to Heathrow Airport for the first time, with more trains serving the airport each hour.

“The new timetable will also remove any significant dwell times for trains between Paddington and Acton Main Line, which were in place temporarily ahead of this new timetable.

“This timetable sees the completion of the Crossrail project, but we will continue to review the Elizabeth line timetables and changes can be made twice each year in line with National Rail timetable changes to add capacity where possible and provide the best service for customers.”

The Elizabeth line, which stretches from Reading and Heathrow in the west to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east is currently one of the busiest railways in the country.

Last month it celebrated 100 million passenger journeys since its opening in May 2022.