Crossrail - operating discussion and opening day 24th May

[iphone76]

As a driver yesterday, here are a few of my observations.

First it was a great atmosphere. It was really nice to see so many people enjoying their day - even though the days of us testing and travelling with no passengers is now over.

The platform edge doors are an absolute boon. People actually stopped attempting to board once the hustle alarm sounded. I was really impressed how they acted to stop people trying to force the doors, board at the last minute, etc.

Canary Wharf. When I travelled home I was impressed how people boarding at the station were in neat lines like they are at the jubilee line station - I wonder if that will catch on at other stations?

As mentioned above, I did notice at a few stations that there were people crowding at one end, whilst the other was totally empty. At some stations where we get a minute dwell time, I did look at the internal cameras and whilst some carriages were really crowded, others were totally empty.

It was interesting to see how the line seemed to take on all those displaced by the issues on the Jubilee and Circle/Ham line yesterday evening. At first I thought that Liverpool Street wouldn't cope if it was like this on a normal day, but I guess a lot more people were using it last night to get around.

Oh - as someone mentioned above, there really was a noticeable number of dogs traveling on the line.

Overall a really positive day. I'm next down there in the middle of next month, so it'll be interesting to see how it has settled down over the first month.

 

[hwl]

front of TL train Southbound, back Northbound is the way to go…

This has been known that this would to be the case for well over a decade and shouldn't be coming as a surprise to any Thameslink Farringdon users over the last ~6years

 

[raspberrypeel]

If I want to go from Paddington to Holborn, is it now faster to take the EL to TCR and change to the Central line there, or to take the Bakerloo to Oxford Circus and change to the Central line there? Taking into account the interchanges between the lines.

There is of course the option to walk to Lancaster Gate, but I'd rather not!

 

[Mikw]

This is the same as I did. I think we’ve nailed Farringdon! Weird that the experience (not distance, that’s understandable, but gatelines etc) is so different depending on whereabouts on the train you get off but anyway - front of TL train Southbound, back Northbound is the way to go…

Totally agree, an Elizabeth line "Hack" right there

 

[Backroom_boy]

As mentioned above, I did notice at a few stations that there were people crowding at one end, whilst the other was totally empty. At some stations where we get a minute dwell time, I did look at the internal cameras and whilst some carriages were really crowded, others were totally empty.

I think this might be an ongoing problem as the distances on the platforms are so long people want to be at the 'right' end for their exit.

 

[johncrossley]

This is the same as I did. I think we’ve nailed Farringdon! Weird that the experience (not distance, that’s understandable, but gatelines etc) is so different depending on whereabouts on the train you get off but anyway - front of TL train Southbound, back Northbound is the way to go…

I guess they don't want people walking back down the platform, potentially past hundreds of people. Obviously the regulars will learn to ignore the signs so will signs make much difference?

 

[Leisurefirst]

I imagine it's for people going from Abbey Wood to Shenfield and vice versa. Some signs at Kennington from the Northbound to the Southbound are needed since Battersea opened, but LUL don't seem to have realised that yet.

Of course it is and is what I actually first thought until I looked at the in car diagram showing the line splitting at Liverpool Street... forgetting that is only temporary! Thank you!

 

[johncrossley]

If I want to go from Paddington to Holborn, is it now faster to take the EL to TCR and change to the Central line there, or to take the Bakerloo to Oxford Circus and change to the Central line there? Taking into account the interchanges between the lines.

There is of course the option to walk to Lancaster Gate, but I'd rather not!

I sense that Crossrail is primarily designed as a point to point railway and the huge stations and long walks to and from the platforms are not particularly advantageous for when you need to make connections. Many people may end up sticking to the Tube from Farringdon to Paddington, for example, because the Tube is next to the Thameslink platforms.

 

[Malaxa]

It’s been noted that bikes are allowed in the off peak. Were any seen today?

I haven't found anything from TfL on bikes, but there appears to be documented permission for off-peak travel with unfolded bikes:

New Connections for Cycles on Trains

The Elizabeth Line finally opens on 24th May with off-peak cycle carriage permitted

lcc.org.uk

I did see one Brompton [unfolded!] yesterday. There's no problem with bikes currently on the Shenfield or Reading service but I don't think there will be much demand at the moment through the core, except perhaps from travellers from East Kent getting to Paddington Station and beyond. When the whole Line is connected up with through running there might be more demand from East-West passengers who don't want to get off in the central section, as with Thameslink North-South.

 

[ashkeba]

No, but I did see some non-foldable ones in the peak; the 2 bike users were in a terse conversation with one of the Elizabeth Line staff who was trying to explain (rightly so) that it was the same as all TfL rules for bikes and they were talking about how it was a new line and the space and shouldn't this have been considered. Someone else chimed in with "well each bike is X passengers" - was fairly good natured but an odd dispute for the morning!

Not that old duck again! A bike is only X passengers if the service is full and standing, else it's extra passengers. Someone above claimed these trains are about 40% full, so there's plenty of room off peak for people who are too scared to use CS3, Quiet way 1 and the old "Seven Station Line" route between the central Elizabeth line stations. Like RM Transit says, bikes can supercharger the reach of your trains.

 

[raspberrypeel]

Geoff Marshall on Twitter today:

On the first w/b train - wow. It’s standing room only already. ALL THE COMMUTERS are here. No seats. It wasn’t Abbey Wood where the majority got on, but Woolwich, apparently.

I know Geoff has a tendency to get very excited about the Elizabeth Line, but this definitely looks like a good sign.

 

[johncrossley]

I know Geoff has a tendency to get very excited about the Elizabeth Line, but this definitely looks like a good sign.

0630 is quite late for the first train, so it isn't that surprising. Passengers who would have preferred to get an earlier train if they existed have to get the 0630. I'd be more interested in how busy the 0635 and 0640 trains were.

 

[345 050]

Of course it is and is what I actually first thought until I looked at the in car diagram showing the line splitting at Liverpool Street... forgetting that is only temporary! Thank you!

I can understand signs for the Eastbound platform, for people doing a reverse there, but Westbound still does not really make sense to me. If you are coming from Shenfield or Abbey Wood you'll already be on the Westbound platform, and you'll need to find the Eastbound platform in both cases. Am I missing something. At no point would you need to find the Westbound platform.

0630 is quite late for the first train, so it isn't that surprising. Passengers who would have preferred to get an earlier train if they existed have to get the 0630. I'd be more interested in how busy the 0635 and 0640 trains were.

Yes exactly. First trains are also busy on the District line and that's at 0530, so it's not massively surprising that the 0630 would be busy.

 

[Mojo]

I can understand signs for the Eastbound platform, for people doing a reverse there, but Westbound still does not really make sense to me. If you are coming from Shenfield or Abbey Wood you'll already be on the Westbound platform, and you'll need to find the Eastbound platform in both cases. Am I missing something. At no point would you need to find the Westbound platform.

That’ll be for people doing the interchange in the opposite direction.

 

[345 050]

That’ll be for people doing the interchange in the opposite direction.

Yes, but wait, no. All those people will also be looking for the Eastbound platform. Whether you are travelling from Shenfield to Abbey Wood, or Abbey Wood to Shenfield, you'll be changing from the Westbound platform to Eastbound platform.

 

[Leisurefirst]

Yes, but wait, no. All those people will also be looking for the Eastbound platform. Whether you are travelling from Shenfield to Abbey Wood, or Abbey Wood to Shenfield, you'll be changing from the Westbound platform to Eastbound platform.

Indeed!
I was only on the westbound platform.
Is there actually a sign on the eastbound pointing to the west?

 

[LeeLivery]

For design, I like Paddington the most and I agree Canary Wharf isn't amazing - I liked Woolwich more. Before travelling on it, I always thought many of the stations looked a bit clinical and huge, but in person, they look quite nice, and being used to Thameslink means the Liz Line platforms don't feel unusually long.

I did notice at the Farringdon ticket hall that the 'A-Z' departure boards don't include Liz Line stations, apart from Abbey Wood (Thameslink services only). I hope that's changed soon.

 

[stuu]

If I want to go from Paddington to Holborn, is it now faster to take the EL to TCR and change to the Central line there, or to take the Bakerloo to Oxford Circus and change to the Central line there? Taking into account the interchanges between the lines.

There is of course the option to walk to Lancaster Gate, but I'd rather not!

Interchange between EL and the Central line at TCR is via the ticket hall, so it's probably quicker to walk from there, depending on your final destination. Or indeed walking to Lancaster Gate!

I think the interchange at Bond Street will be shorter so that would become the solution, one day

 

[NLC1072]

For those of you wondering what it was like on the first train, here is a video I did yesterday which I did a walk through of the train just so it would be clear as day.

Elizabeth line first train video

 

[transportphoto]

There was also a very heavy police presence around the station.

Noticeably high BTP presence across the Elizabeth Line yesterday - I counted upwards of 10 to 15 BTP officers at the gate line of Paddington in the mid afternoon, on one train I noted four BTP officers standing together and as they got off at Liverpool Street a further three were waiting to get on the same train!

 

[sprunt]

Mildly interesting anomaly when I checked what I'd been charged on the TfL website this morning - my touch-out at the new Broadgate exit from Liverpool Street has been counted as coming out of the Undergroud rather than the Elizabeth Line - will this always be the case for stations with both Elizabeth line and LU?

 

[CapitalStar378]

Got a late EL train from Heathrow last night, the digital departure screens at arrivals level still say TfL Rail, whereas at platform level they say Elizabeth Line. On train announcements have had TfL Rail cut out but nothing added in so they say 'This is a ..... train to Paddington'. Sounds the same on the central section from all the videos on You Tube. Assume Elizabeth Line will be added at some point.

 

[345 050]

Access to all three footbridges open at Abbey Wood. Not sure what was the purpose of the micromanagement earlier....

 

[pdeaves]

Mildly interesting anomaly when I checked what I'd been charged on the TfL website this morning - my touch-out at the new Broadgate exit from Liverpool Street has been counted as coming out of the Undergroud rather than the Elizabeth Line - will this always be the case for stations with both Elizabeth line and LU?

View attachment 115243

Wild guess, it's because Liverpool Street Crossrail station is run by London Underground along with the obviously Underground bits.

 

[345 050]

Yes, just went through the Eastbound platform and there is indeed a sign for Westbound platform.

 

[Basil Jet]

For those of you wondering what it was like on the first train, here is a video I did yesterday which I did a walk through of the train just so it would be clear as day.

Elizabeth line first train video

Was the merch store there all day? I was in Paddington at about 1pm and I didn't see it.

The massive "Canary Wharf" roundels at the mezzanine level are one of the oddest things on the network. Normally you have [name] roundels at platform level and [mode] roundels outside, but what purpose do roundels serve in the mezzanine?

I thought the "Canary Wharf" roundels on the concrete pillars at platform level would have curved backs so that they could sit on the curved pillars, but in reality the pillars have notches cut in them so that the presumably flat backed roundels can fit into them. I find that surprising in a structural element - the pillars must be bigger than they need to be so that they can stand being weakened by the notches.

On the underside of the lift vehicle at Custom House is a pair of large wheels set at an angle to the lift which rotate as the lift moves. Is the angle part of the "everything at Custom House is at an angle" thing, or do the lifts normally come with the wheels at an angle, and if so, why?

An information display at Custom House for staff is loose standing and on a chain padlocked to a pole. The staff installing it said that it was temporary until the permanent sign could be installed. Bizarre.

At Paddington the three southern escalators ran down and the two northern escalators ran up. Because I wanted to get out to the M&S at the southern end of the mainline station, I couldn't be arsed to use an escalator that took me further north, so I used the lift instead. When large numbers of tired people realise that the lift makes various journeys shorter than the escalators, they will have queues at the lifts. I predict that they will switch to up and down escalators at both ends.

On the Elizabeth Line platforms at Ilford, the roundels have signs above saying "<-Way Out | Way Out ->". It doesn't tell you which roads the various ways out lead you to, which is unhelpful.

There's an abandoned platform on the north side of Ilford. Was this connected with the line to Newbury Park? Was it bidirectional? It seems too near to London to have been a bay.

I can't remember where my favourite thing was! It was a concrete ceiling with weird gold lines inlaid into it, criss-crossing randomly. It might have been the Barbican end of Farringdon.

Abbey Wood needs more roundels. The southbound side of the road has an aged tower with an Arrow Of Indecision and a bus roundel, and it needs something purple. You can see the station building from the Wilton Road side but there is nothing to tell you what it is until you're next to it.. it needs a roundel so big you can see it from the roundabout. I suspect the architect would hate that, but screw him. The north side has a roundel which is visible if you know to look for it, but it needs to be bigger, but not as big as the one needed on the south side, because the sight line is not so long.

 

[TheDon88]

I can't remember where my favourite thing was! It was a concrete ceiling with weird gold lines inlaid into it, criss-crossing randomly. It might have been the Barbican end of Farringdon.

I believe that is at the Tube Ticket Hall end of Tottenham Court Road, on the ceiling above the top of the Elizabeth Line escalators.

 

[Basil Jet]

I believe that is at the Tube Ticket Hall end of Tottenham Court Road, on the ceiling above the top of the Elizabeth Line escalators.

Thanks.

I just found this picture of Canary Wharf, and had to say it's hard to believe it's a real picture, it looks like a photomontage called "Suicide".

 

[306024]

Was the merch store there all day? I was in Paddington at about 1pm and I didn't see it.

It was there, I was at Paddington at the same time.

There's an abandoned platform on the north side of Ilford. Was this connected with the line to Newbury Park? Was it bidirectional? It seems too near to London to have been a bay.

It was the old pfm 5 which was a bay platform, lost so pfm 4 could be lengthened at the London end. There was also a further line north of that and Aldersbrook down sidings by the flyover. All long removed.

 

[345 050]

Was the merch store there all day? I was in Paddington at about 1pm and I didn't see it.

The massive "Canary Wharf" roundels at the mezzanine level are one of the oddest things on the network. Normally you have [name] roundels at platform level and [mode] roundels outside, but what purpose do roundels serve in the mezzanine?

I thought the "Canary Wharf" roundels on the concrete pillars at platform level would have curved backs so that they could sit on the curved pillars, but in reality the pillars have notches cut in them so that the presumably flat backed roundels can fit into them. I find that surprising in a structural element - the pillars must be bigger than they need to be so that they can stand being weakened by the notches.

On the underside of the lift vehicle at Custom House is a pair of large wheels set at an angle to the lift which rotate as the lift moves. Is the angle part of the "everything at Custom House is at an angle" thing, or do the lifts normally come with the wheels at an angle, and if so, why?

An information display at Custom House for staff is loose standing and on a chain padlocked to a pole. The staff installing it said that it was temporary until the permanent sign could be installed. Bizarre.

At Paddington the three southern escalators ran down and the two northern escalators ran up. Because I wanted to get out to the M&S at the southern end of the mainline station, I couldn't be arsed to use an escalator that took me further north, so I used the lift instead. When large numbers of tired people realise that the lift makes various journeys shorter than the escalators, they will have queues at the lifts. I predict that they will switch to up and down escalators at both ends.

On the Elizabeth Line platforms at Ilford, the roundels have signs above saying "<-Way Out | Way Out ->". It doesn't tell you which roads the various ways out lead you to, which is unhelpful.

There's an abandoned platform on the north side of Ilford. Was this connected with the line to Newbury Park? Was it bidirectional? It seems too near to London to have been a bay.

I can't remember where my favourite thing was! It was a concrete ceiling with weird gold lines inlaid into it, criss-crossing randomly. It might have been the Barbican end of Farringdon.

Abbey Wood needs more roundels. The southbound side of the road has an aged tower with an Arrow Of Indecision and a bus roundel, and it needs something purple. You can see the station building from the Wilton Road side but there is nothing to tell you what it is until you're next to it.. it needs a roundel so big you can see it from the roundabout. I suspect the architect would hate that, but screw him. The north side has a roundel which is visible if you know to look for it, but it needs to be bigger, but not as big as the one needed on the south side, because the sight line is not so long.

The escalators have been put back to up-up-down and up-dn. There was crowd management in place yesterday, followed by the fire alert. After the fire alert all Southern end escalators were changed to down to clear the crowd of people waiting to go back down. Prior to this, one of the Southern escalators was up, but both Northern escalators were up all day due to crowd Management. Admittedly I wasn't there later on, so I don't know if they changed it back before PM peak.