What could be done to improve the Elizabeth Line’s performance?

[philosopher]

It is clear that the Elizabeth Line’s performance has not been great over the past year, which is something both the London Mayor has said.

Elizabeth line not meeting high standards, says London mayor

Sadiq Khan is requesting to meet the head of Network Rail after passengers were stranded on Thursday.

www.bbc.co.uk

The Elizabeth line has "not met the consistently high standards" expected by Londoners, Sadiq Khan has said.
At a Transport for London (TfL) board meeting, the mayor criticised the line's delays and cancellations.

Ahead of the meeting, the mayor wrote to Andrew Haines, the managing director of Network Rail, to say the "the reliability of the Elizabeth line has not been good enough".

One idea would be to simplify the service pattern, with two services on the line, one from Abbey Wood to Heathrow / Maidenhead / Reading, the other from Shenfield to Paddington. It would mean passengers travelling from say Stratford to Heathrow would have to change, but this would be a simple same platform change in the core section. This is I think what the service pattern was like a year ago. Would this improve performance? If not, what else would help?

 

[Stephen42]

Outside peak periods all but 2 trains an hour from Shenfield terminate at Paddington already. The timetable itself appears to be relatively robust, though service recovery will more often resort to cancellations (or terminating short, skip stopping which count as cancellations) due to the high frequency operation. In the latest set of data from ORR for July to September this year Elizabeth line was 2nd highest for On Time performance even with the third highest cancellation rate (would be lower if using the P coded cancellation rates for other operators).

The main way to improve would be improving the reliability of the infrastructure. Network Rail is one of the key causes and they have their own performance plan for that. Elizabeth line owned infrastructure reliability is improving according to their latest report but looking to future updates to improve the reliability further to improve performance.

 

[philosopher]

Outside peak periods all but 2 trains an hour from Shenfield terminate at Paddington already. The timetable itself appears to be relatively robust, though service recovery will more often resort to cancellations (or terminating short, skip stopping which count as cancellations) due to the high frequency operation. In the latest set of data from ORR for July to September this year Elizabeth line was 2nd highest for On Time performance even with the third highest cancellation rate (would be lower if using the P coded cancellation rates for other operators).

The main way to improve would be improving the reliability of the infrastructure. Network Rail is one of the key causes and they have their own performance plan for that. Elizabeth line owned infrastructure reliability is improving according to their latest report but looking to future updates to improve the reliability further to improve performance.

Cancellations as a metric are perhaps a bit unfair on the Elizabeth Line as due to it’s high frequency, a cancellation will have far less of impact than say a train that only runs once an hour. Though it would still lead to the next train being considerably more busy, which during peak hours could be a major issue, even if it only results in a relatively small increase in travel time.

 

[Non Multi]

Cancellations as a metric are perhaps a bit unfair on the Elizabeth Line as due to it’s high frequency, a cancellation will have far less of impact than say a train that only runs once an hour. Though it would still lead to the next train being considerably more busy, which during peak hours could be a major issue, even if it only results in a relatively small increase in travel time.

It's worth noting that two stations (Iver, Taplow) get an half-hourly off peak service. Cancel 1 train, suddenly the next train is in an hour, cancel 2 and you might as well have not bothered. If you touch in and wait on the platform for the next service, you may well exceed the fare time limit set and get clobbered with maximum fares too.

 

[PGAT]

It's worth noting that two stations (Iver, Taplow) get an half-hourly off peak service. Cancel 1 train, suddenly the next train is in an hour, cancel 2 and you might as well have not bothered. If you touch in and wait on the platform for the next service, you may well exceed the fare time limit set and get clobbered with maximum fares too.

Couldn’t you stop the other Abbey Wood train that usually runs fast through them?

 

[Mikey C]

I wasn't going there, but was surprised at the long gap this afternoon for any Heathrow service. At Tottenham Court Road the first 5 westbound trains were Paddington, Reading, Paddington, Maidenhead and Paddington again. There must have been a 20-25 minute wait for a Heathrow service.

 

[JonathanH]

I wasn't going there, but was surprised at the long gap this afternoon for any Heathrow service. At Tottenham Court Road the first 5 westbound trains were Paddington, Reading, Paddington, Maidenhead and Paddington again. There must have been a 20-25 minute wait for a Heathrow service.

That is hardly surprising when the basic service from Abbey Wood to Heathrow Terminal 4 is quarter hourly, overlaid with the half hourly service from Shenfield to Terminal 5.

The 1418 from Tottenham Court Road to Terminal 4 was cancelled, which resulted in a 27 minute gap between 1403 and 1430. The Terminal 5 service runs 3 minutes ahead of the next Terminal 4 service.

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/se...24-03-08/1400-1431?stp=WVS&show=all&order=wtt

Whichever way it is organised, there would always be only a three or four minute gap between Heathrow services, but it can't be planned around cancellations.

 

[Mikey C]

That is hardly surprising when the basic service from Abbey Wood to Heathrow Terminal 4 is quarter hourly, overlaid with the half hourly service from Shenfield to Terminal 5.

The 1418 from Tottenham Court Road to Terminal 4 was cancelled, which resulted in a 27 minute gap between 1403 and 1430. The Terminal 5 service runs 3 minutes ahead of the next Terminal 4 service.

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/se...24-03-08/1400-1431?stp=WVS&show=all&order=wtt

Whichever way it is organised, there would always be only a three or four minute gap between Heathrow services, but it can't be planned around cancellations.

A 27 minute gap is massive and really stressful when people have flights to take. And ZERO announcements too.

Yes it's complicated, but it does look a bit ridiculous to have train after train terminating at Paddington, rather than one of those going on to Heathrow instead.

 

[JonathanH]

A 27 minute gap is massive and really stressful when people have flights to take. And ZERO announcements too.

Yes it's complicated, but it does look a bit ridiculous to have train after train terminating at Paddington, rather than one of those going on to Heathrow instead.

Yes, but the point I guess is that they choose not to show cancellations on the displays.

 

[coppercapped]

A 27 minute gap is massive and really stressful when people have flights to take. And ZERO announcements too.

Yes it's complicated, but it does look a bit ridiculous to have train after train terminating at Paddington, rather than one of those going on to Heathrow instead.

If a 27 minute gap is so stressful, then why not take the next train to Paddington and take a Heathrow Express from there? There's one every fifteen minutes so, at worst, one would get to Heathrow ten minutes earlier.

If it's a question of missing a flight or paying for another ticket then I know which choice I would make.