Crossrail - Construction updates and progress towards opening (now expected 24 May 2022)

[Backroom_boy]

"The Lizline"

Or maybe not, I've not heard many call it the Vic or the Pic

 

[ijmad]

Or maybe not, I've not heard many call it the Vic or the Pic

I hear these shortenings all the time, personally speaking. Maybe it depends on the age group and social status of who you mix with the most!

 

[thomalex]

I'd say Crossrail is similar to RER A/B, but RER C is much more like Thameslink and RER D is more like the East London Line / Overground. Of course Paris has its own Overground network too, called Transilien, but the RER C and D with their lower branch frequency and more complex routes feels much more these than Crossrail.

I agree the 'mode' branding for the Elizabeth line is weird. I wonder what the plan will be if Crossrail 2 is ever brought back from mothballs. Will it be the same mode as Elizabeth Line or will we get yet another 'mode'?

A problem for the distant future no doubt but if Crossrail 2 does eventually happen you could bring back the Crossrail brand as the mode and have an Elizabeth line and this line (Charles line anyone?) under it.

I still think however the Elizabeth line will be subsumed under the Underground banner eventually though.

 

[MotCO]

The problem with 'The Victoria Line' is that it can refer to the tube line or the main line trains running into Victoria (as opposed to the London Bridge lines etc.)

 

[mrmartin]

If you are looking for detailed timings they are in the Timetable Planning Rules. See section 5 starting on page 16: https://nile.tfl.gov.uk/cdn/static/cms/documents/ccos-tpr2022rev1.pdf

Interesting. How do these compare to eg the tube? It feels like a lot of tube stops are like a few seconds dwell time - is 1 minute going to feel very slow esp off peak with not many people getting on or off?

 

[Wolfie]

I hear these shortenings all the time, personally speaking. Maybe it depends on the age group and social status of who you mix with the most!

Not to mention where you live. Those furthest from London, who say it once in a blue moon, seem keenest on the full long form.

The problem with 'The Victoria Line' is that it can refer to the tube line or the main line trains running into Victoria (as opposed to the London Bridge lines etc.)

Not to people living in London!

 

[MotCO]

Not to mention where you live. Those furthest from London, who say it once in a blue moon, seem keenest on the full long form.


Not to people living in London!

I do!

 

[mister-sparky]

People won’t call it the Elizabeth line, they’ll call it crossrail

 

[ctom_s]

I think most who've been in london will call it crossrail for starters (like the way people still called thameslink thameslink even when it wasn't branded as such), maybe the elizabeth line will catch on eventually and people from outside london will call it that.

As for shortenings I don't know....I don't know of many other lines that a regularly shortened. Picc Line, Vic Line maybe that's about it. Liz line doesn't sound right haha.

 

[dosxuk]

As for shortenings I don't know....I don't know of many other lines that a regularly shortened. Picc Line, Vic Line maybe that's about it. Liz line doesn't sound right haha.

Baker Street & Waterloo Railway? A shortening so popular it was formally adopted.

More seriously, the Metropolitan line is regularly shortened to the Met. I don't think I've ever heard anyone read out "Hammersmith & City Line" either - although, bizarrely, I can't think what they use instead - probably "not the circle line, the other one" or "the pink line".

 

[davetheguard]

Baker Street & Waterloo Railway? A shortening so popular it was formally adopted.

More seriously, the Metropolitan line is regularly shortened to the Met. I don't think I've ever heard anyone read out "Hammersmith & City Line" either - although, bizarrely, I can't think what they use instead - probably "not the circle line, the other one" or "the pink line".

Someone I used to know always called it the "hot & cold" (H&C), which I tend to use myself now. I doubt that it's called that in common usage though.

Perhaps it should be!

I can't see myself using Johnson's pet name for Crossrail though. I wonder what that late name change cost the ratepayers of London? Luckily, I'm not one of them.

 

[Horizon22]

People won’t call it the Elizabeth line, they’ll call it crossrail

Probably will call it whatever the media, signage, announcements, society call it. That being said you ask 10 people in London what the "London Overground" is called, and you'll get a bunch of different answers. Crossrail does seem to be what the general public now it as, or "TfL" for railway folk.

I've thought the Elizabeth line is always weird because it isn't a Tube line and it has more in common with Thameslink / Overground which are both not called a "XXX line", whilst the latter still has a distnictive TfL brand. Crossrail could have fit neatly into that (with the potential of Crossrail 2/3/4 in future, similar to RER in Paris).

 

[GC class B1]

Baker Street & Waterloo Railway? A shortening so popular it was formally adopted.

More seriously, the Metropolitan line is regularly shortened to the Met. I don't think I've ever heard anyone read out "Hammersmith & City Line" either - although, bizarrely, I can't think what they use instead - probably "not the circle line, the other one" or "the pink line".

Isn’t it known as the H&C?

 

[Horizon22]

I can't see myself using Johnson's pet name for Crossrail though. I wonder what that late name change cost the ratepayers of London? Luckily, I'm not one of them.

Most of the signage hadn't been created by then, so I doubt it would have been any substantial cost.

 

[43066]

Not sure if this has been asked already, but do we know when Crossrail will appear on Traksy, OTT etc.?

 

[ctom_s]

Not sure if this has been asked already, but do we know when Crossrail will appear on Traksy, OTT etc.?

It's already on OTT (with trial workings), and the detailed view on RTT. Less familiar with Traksy.

 

[zwk500]

Not sure if this has been asked already, but do we know when Crossrail will appear on Traksy, OTT etc.?

Crossrail is also on Signalmaps https://signalmaps.co.uk/#crossrail:755

 

[Watershed]

Not sure if this has been asked already, but do we know when Crossrail will appear on Traksy, OTT etc.?

Schedules are already in the open data, and hence are shown in OTT and RTT etc., albeit as they are unadvertised passenger services, they only appear in the "detailed" view on the latter.

Traksy already shows the "core" (in fact there is a new Reading/Heathrow to Shenfield/Abbey Wood map!) but OTT's maps function only shows the connections at either end.

 

[3973EXL]

Some shots of Southall today for anybody interested.

 

[kevin_roche]

Crossrail is also on Signalmaps https://signalmaps.co.uk/#crossrail:755

I love the way Signalmaps shows the crossrail core and the movement of the trains.

 

[Horizon22]

Not sure if this has been asked already, but do we know when Crossrail will appear on Traksy, OTT etc.?

It's on CCF for a few weeks, TMIS for a while (both internal) and Trakys you can see it here - https://traksy.uk/live/M+63+PADTON

One thing I've already seen is how much of a backlog you can get at Abbey Wood with any sort of delays as 9Uxx services wait outside for one of the two platforms available.

 

[TrainSailing]

People won’t call it the Elizabeth line, they’ll call it crossrail

Train people yes but the general public will just call it the Elizabeth Line I reckon.

 

[theking]

Hopefully RTT puts the departures into the existing stations, will be a pain having to search crossrail specific at whitechapel for example.

 

[Horizon22]

Hopefully RTT puts the departures into the existing stations, will be a pain having to search crossrail specific at whitechapel for example.

I don't think it will. The specific codes of PDX, LSX, FDX, WDX (Paddington, Liverpool St, Farringdon and Whitechapel respectively) all exist and are separate from the mainline stations. It will be very much a 5 minute frequency "turn-up-and-go" even from the 'reduced' Central section timetable though, so shouldn't be too much waiting (bar disruption).

 

[sussexbythesea]

I don't think it will. The specific codes of PDX, LSX, FDX, WDX (Paddington, Liverpool St, Farringdon and Whitechapel respectively) all exist and are separate from the mainline stations. It will be very much a 5 minute frequency "turn-up-and-go" even from the 'reduced' Central section timetable though, so shouldn't be too much waiting (bar disruption).

I'd have thought that for Paddington and Liverpool Street at least it would make sense to integrate the two stations as some services may depart from the legacy platforms in peak hours and/or disruption.

 

[Horizon22]

I'd have thought that for Paddington and Liverpool Street at least it would make sense to integrate the two stations as some services may depart from the legacy platforms in peak hours and/or disruption.

'Legacy platfoms' - making National Rail users feel old! Yeah there would certainly be some merit in that but would need to be done in a way that wouldn't confuse people. I know there are discussions about how to manage this on customer information screens when through running begins either later this year or 2023; one approach might be as is done at Kings Cross with the Thameslink service that now depart from St Pancras, but will be quite the shift for people to no longer see their purple trains on 10-12 at Paddington and 15-17 at Liverpool Street (with the exception of a very small number of peak trains).

 

[43066]

Crossrail is also on Signalmaps https://signalmaps.co.uk/#crossrail:755

Schedules are already in the open data, and hence are shown in OTT and RTT etc., albeit as they are unadvertised passenger services, they only appear in the "detailed" view on the latter.

Traksy already shows the "core" (in fact there is a new Reading/Heathrow to Shenfield/Abbey Wood map!) but OTT's maps function only shows the connections at either end.

It's on CCF for a few weeks, TMIS for a while (both internal) and Trakys you can see it here - https://traksy.uk/live/M+63+PADTON

One thing I've already seen is how much of a backlog you can get at Abbey Wood with any sort of delays as 9Uxx services wait outside for one of the two platforms available.

Thanks all. Not sure how I managed to miss that!

 

[DC1989]

I feel like these trains should follow the tube model and have XX Mins to destination rather than the 17:10, 17:15 etc

In the central section these trains are going to be every 150 seconds - maybe even 120 seconds further down the line. Even minor delays will show everything thereafter as delayed?

 

[swt_passenger]

I love the way Signalmaps shows the crossrail core and the movement of the trains.

I had a look earlier, and assumed it must have been a glitch with signalmaps missing data, because on the approach to Abbey Wood 9U15 had left a duplicate 9U15 a few blocks behind itself, which was only overwritten a few minutes later when 9U16 came along. The reversals at Abbey Wood seemed quite slick though.

 

[JonathanH]

I feel like these trains should follow the tube model and have XX Mins to destination rather than the 17:10, 17:15 etc

They will follow that model, just as the East London Line does on the common section (and indeed SWR does at Clapham Junction towards Waterloo). The underground has a timetable though, not just gaps.