Crossrail

What is Crossrail?

Crossrail is Europe’s largest construction project, worth £16 billion, which will deliver high capacity and highfrequency rail services linking Maidenhead and Heathrow in the west to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east, via 21 kilometres of new tunnelling under Central London.

When will the new rail services start?

  • London Liverpool Street to Shenfield - Summer 2017
  • London Paddington to Heathrow Airport – Summer 2018
  • London Paddington Crossrail station to Shenfield and Abbey Wood – Winter 2018
  • Shenfield and Abbey Wood to Maidenhead (full service) – Winter 2019

Click here for a map of where Crossrail is connecting

What are the benefits?

  • Crossrail will enable an additional 1.5 million people to access London’s key business districts within 45 minutes.
  • An estimated 200 million passengers will travel on Crossrail each year as the route will provide a 10% increase to rail capacity in the capital and well as reduce cross London journey times.
  • Crossrail will ease the crowding on London’s transport network, as it will be operating with main line size trains carrying more than 1,500 passengers in each train during peak periods.

21 kilometres of tunneling

To construct the 21km of twin-bore tunnel required for Crossrail, eight tunnel boring machines (TBMs) will undertake ten individual
tunnel drives to construct the 6.2 metre diameter tunnels. At 140 metres, each TBM would just fit just inside the boundaries of a cricket oval.
The first of the eight 1,000 tonne tunnel boring machines are currently being assembled at Westbourne Park (just outside London Paddington), in preparation for work which will start from Royal Oak in Spring 2012. So if you're travelling in and out of London, you should see these from the train

Tunnel Boring Machine

 

What’s happening at London Paddington?

The Brunel-designed London Paddington station is a Grade 1 listed building and the design of the new parts of the station will need to retain the integrity of the original building. Work to build the new Crossrail station which will transform London Paddington station and affect both First Great Western customers as well as staff is scheduled to start in early 2012. Regular meetings are ongoing between Transport for London (TfL), Network Rail, Paddington Working Group, London Taxis, and Westminster Council to ensure that all groups who have an interest in London Paddington station have their voices heard.

Work is well underway to build a new taxi rank above platform 12, accessible by lifts and escalators, and is scheduled to be open to customers in February 2012.

Site of new CR Station

Other works at London Paddington include:

  • An upgraded, newly refurbished Hammersmith and City Line station above platforms 15 and 16 which will greatly improve the London Underground and National Rail interchanges between platforms 10 to 16 during peak times
  • A new larger north side station entrance to the Paddington central development and St Marys Hospital
  • A new gateline on platform 12.

All of these changes will eventually deliver a vastly improved travelling experience for First Great Western customers coming into Paddington, providing easy access to Crossrail and other transport services.