On the 9th June 2022, I went to Heathrow Airport to collect someone returning back to the UK and I decided that I would arrive early enough to be able to go and explore and have a ride on a #Purpletrain (thanks to @geofftech for this). There is debate as to whether I had a ride on a "true" purple train or not, as the one I went on had been in service for a while but had been running as TfL Rail service. The line was built under Crossrail and has now opened as Elizabeth line
The line has been opened as 3 sections and the time of writing this, Bond Street has not yet been opened owing to many challenges that have been faced.
The first section runs from Reading and Heathrow Terminals, merging at Hayes & Harlington to Paddington.
The second section (which is the new section that has been built underground) runs from Paddington to Abbey Wood. It is worth noting that at the time of this post, if you want to go from Hayes & Harlington to Abbey Wood, you would have to get a train to the surface level platforms at Paddington, then change platforms and go underground to get to the next section of the line, which could add around 10 minutes to the through journey.
The third section runs from Liverpool Street to Shenfield. If you look at the map, it looks like it runs from Moorgate, as the map interchange is a bit blurred into one. The reason for this is that the platforms are so long on the Elizabeth line, that Liverpool Street is actually connected to Moorgate, so you can enter Moorgate Station and board the train at Liverpool Street.
The first public service ran on 24th May 2022 and I had seen plenty of videos on YouTube
(Hidden London Hangouts: Farringdon, Paddington, Canary Wharf, Trial Operations, Whitechapel, Liverpool Street, Ultimate Premiere, Opening Day Special,
and posts on Facebook where trial runs had taken place and I was curious to see some of the things for myself, so I topped up my Oyster Card and went to find the Elizabeth line platforms. As I had never done this before, I expected at Heathrow to have one entrance that allowed access to both the Elizabeth line and the Underground, but they are actually a short walk away from each other, which makes the engineering here very complexed. There is a walkway under the runways, which then has a link to the Underground and a separate link to the Elizabeth line.
The entrance to the Underground showing that the entrance to the Elizabeth line is a short walk away. If you travel between the Heathrow Terminals on either the Underground, or the Elizabeth line, this is a free connection, and the stations are managed by Heathrow Airport, rather than TfL.
I was quite surprised at just how deep the platforms were. This is the bottom and I had already come down a couple of other escalators, bearing in mind that to get to the entrance from the terminal building (2 & 3), you have to go underground.
So onto the train. The journey was smooth and the train is so long that not all the doors fit on the platforms, so the trains have "selective door opening", which means that only sections will open. There are announcements within the carriages that do advise on where to stand.
Next stop Hayes & Harlington, where I had to dash to the exit, tap out with my Oyster card and then tap back in, so that I would be charged the correct fare.
The line map on the left shows the three sections of the one line (which will eventually become just one line) and it also shows Bond Street as opening soon. As this station is also serviced by mainline services, this is shown on the line map on the right.
And then back to Heathrow Central - It hasn't been known as this for many years, but the signs are still in place. It was a great little outing for me and it was great to see some of the train features that have been shown on so many of the videos that I have seen.
Comentários