Crossrail

Crossrail is a completed railway project centred on London. It provides a high-frequency hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system known as the Elizabeth line, that crosses the capital from suburbs on the west to east and connects two major railway lines terminating in London: the Great Western Main Line and the Great Eastern Main Line. The project was approved in 2007, and construction began in 2009 on the central section and connections to existing lines that became part of the route, which has been named the Elizabeth line in honour of Queen Elizabeth II who opened the line on 17 May 2022 during her Platinum Jubilee. The central section of the line between Paddington and Abbey Wood opened on 24 May 2022, with 12 trains per hour running in each direction through the core section in Central London. Crossrail is similar to the RER in Paris and the S-Bahn systems of German-speaking countries. The main feature of the project was the construction of a new railway line that runs underground from Paddington Station to a junction near Whitechapel. There it splits into a branch to Stratford, where it joins the Great Eastern Main Line; and a branch to Abbey Wood in southeast London. When the Elizabeth line became fully operational in May 2023, the new nine-carriage Class 345 trains started to run at frequencies in the central section of up to 24 trains per hour in each direction through the central core, after which services divide into two branches: in the west to Reading and to Heathrow Central; in the east to Abbey Wood and to Shenfield. Local services on the section of the Great Eastern Main Line between Liverpool Street and Shenfield had been transferred to TfL Rail in May 2015; TfL Rail also took over Heathrow Connect...