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TODAY’S THE DAY: Take a direct Elizabeth line train from Heathrow to central London

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It may have taken a large proportion of my lifetime to build, but today is the day that you can finally take an Elizabeth line train directly from Heathrow Airport to central London.

You can also travel directly from Heathrow through the centre to Abbey Wood. What you CANNOT do without a change of train is travel from Heathrow to Shenfield, although you can now travel from Paddington to Shenfield direct.

Today is also the first day that full Sunday services are running, and also sees increased frequencies between Paddington and Whitechapel.

Elizabeth Line open direct to Heathrow

To quote the official TfL press release:

  • customers travelling from Reading and Heathrow are now able to travel east all the way to Abbey Wood without needing to change at Paddington mainline station
  • customers travelling from Shenfield will be able to travel west all the way to Paddington without needing to change at Liverpool Street mainline station
  • journeys from the east to destinations beyond Paddington, including towards Heathrow or Reading, will be possible by changing trains and waiting on the same platform at any central London Elizabeth line station for the next direct train. Given the layout of the station, changing trains at Whitechapel is likely to be easiest for customers.

TfL claims that:

People landing at Heathrow Airport will now be able to travel straight through central London on a direct train to areas such as Farringdon and Canary Wharf in as little as 36 and 45 minutes respectively at weekends and 40 and 51 minutes respectively during the week.

Customers will also able to use the Elizabeth line seven days a week following the start of Sunday services through central London. The frequency of services in the central section between Paddington and Whitechapel has increased from 12 trains per hour all day to up to 22 trains per hour in peak times and 16 trains per hour during off-peak.

The full peak timetable, which will see 24 trains per hour during the peak between Paddington and Whitechapel, is on track to be in place by May 2023. 

Elizabeth line route

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said:

“I’m delighted that from Sunday people will be able to benefit from fast and direct Elizabeth line services into central London, seven days a week. This development is a huge moment for the capital’s connectivity, revolutionising the way we travel across London, allowing people to travel from Stratford in the east of London to Paddington in the west of London in just 19 minutes, and Ealing Broadway to Canary Wharf in just over 30 minutes.

“Services running on Sundays through central London will make thousands of journeys quicker, easier and more comfortable. Now services from outside London are connected with the stations in centre of the capital, people can be quickly transported on the Elizabeth line all the way through the city.

This new stage of the Elizabeth line will bring a huge boost to our city – including encouraging people to make the most of the capital and will help support businesses in the heart of our city. I’m so proud of this transformational addition to our public transport network. The Elizabeth line is helping to build a better London – a fairer, greener and more prosperous city for all Londoners.”

Elizabeth Line open direct to Heathrow

What are the Heathrow timings?

When it comes to Heathrow, there will be six trains per hour.

All six will serve Terminals 2 & 3, whilst four will continue on to Terminal 4. Just two trains per hour – one every 30 minutes – will operate to Terminal 5.

(EDIT: the comments below imply that it is only four per hour – two to T5 and two to T4 – until next Spring.)

This is a blow to British Airways although better than planned given that running to Terminal 5 was never part of the original plan for Crossrail. Still, with many more passengers travelling from Terminal 5 versus Terminal 4 it doesn’t make a huge amount of sense.

A trip from Heathrow to Farringdon will cost between £10.70 and £12.70. This is thanks to a £7.20 ‘Heathrow premium’ charge that TFL is charging over Piccadilly Line fares, in part to pay for access to Heathrow’s rail tunnels which are owned by the airport. It is worth adding a Railcard to your Oyster Card, if you have one, to get a 33% discount on off-peak fares.

Given that the Head for Points office is only a couple of minutes from Liverpool Street, we are obviously keen to try out the new through service to Heathrow as soon as we can. Look out for a report.

Category

General

Comments (158)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • A Droyd says:
    6 Nov6 November 07:11

    OF course, they can’t be bothered to connect the Shenfield branch to the full system yet. What is the excuse for TfL not running our trains past Paddington?

    • Nick says:
      6 Nov6 November 09:02

      Shenfield branch is not intended to connect direct to Heathrow. Half of the trains were always intended to reverse at paddington (will be Old Oak Common if that’s ever built) – the decision to use the Essex branch for this was taken after Canary Wharf’s owners agreed to pay for their own station in return for their trains being the ones to serve the airport.

      Today is actually a win for both eastern and western branches – TfL have brought this forward from May.

      • Skywalker says:
        6 Nov6 November 09:27

        Re: Old Oak Common – this is currently being built, and you can see it when travelling west of Paddington.

        There will be a HS2 station there as well, so if you wanted to travel from Heathrow to Birmingham (or Manchester), it would be a single change at Old Oak Common, rather than travelling to Euston.

      • Carl says:
        6 Nov6 November 10:30

        I don’t think it can be claimed that anything has been ‘brought forward’ when talking about the Elizabeth Line. That said I’m very happy that we are finally able to use it.

    • Martin says:
      6 Nov6 November 09:03

      I think the answer is “it’s complicated” – otherwise they’d have been doing it from day 1. There are different signalling systems in use on the new tracks and the Great Eastern & Great Western main lines. This timetable means each train only has to switch system once in its journey, and they want to let that bed in before tackling all three at once. (In the meantime, hop off at any of the stations in the central core and catch the next train – it’s not the world’s greatest inconvenience.)

      • Alex Sm says:
        6 Nov6 November 11:35

        Well explained and well put, Martin. We need to beat the moaners by the facts!

        • Londonsteve says:
          6 Nov6 November 12:17

          Totally. Stepping off then nack on a train without moving an inch on the platform while waiting is hardly an ‘inconvenience’. It’s just the way the timetable works out. Direct trains to Heathrow from Shenfield, quite apart from the technical complications involved, would entail fewer trains from Abbey Wood and therefore Canary Wharf. A direct service to CW is far more important than any of the stations on the Shenfield branch (with all due respect to people that close to them).

          • bruinbrown says:
            6 Nov6 November 15:00

            And the full timetable will see trains running all the way from Shenfield to Heathrow by May 2023 anyway.

            But the likelihood is that with due to the split at the western end and the eastern end, it will probably end up being the case that we change in the central section as we do today rather than waiting up to 30 minutes for the next direct train to Heathrow.

  • Andrew J says:
    6 Nov6 November 07:26

    I think Paddington counted as Central London already.

  • Ian says:
    6 Nov6 November 07:35

    However on the 10th and other strike dates it will be a split service.

    Very annoying as I need to get from Heathrow to Liverpool Street or Whitechapel on the day and back in the evening.

  • Terry Butcher says:
    6 Nov6 November 07:41

    Trains with no toilets, no first class and not even a litter bin! I wonder what international visitors will think of this? It’s quite a long way from the airport to Southeast London without these facilities.

    So, for the majority of British Airways passengers it means a change at Heathrow Central. Interesting how the Elizabeth line refers to it as Heathrow Central whereas Heathrow express call it terminals two and three station.

    • JakeMc says:
      6 Nov6 November 07:54

      Terry…! What? I imagine the same as they do all other airport metros. Dubai metro – no toilets. Singapore metro – no toilets or first class. New York… etc.

      Also, since when is the 45 min to Canary Wharf (as far as 95% of international visitors will go) a long transfer?

      Unless there is now some mass class of international visitor with significant incontinence issues, I imagine they will find the journey just fine.

      • LostAntipod says:
        6 Nov6 November 10:53

        How many metros you mention are a one hour trip just to the city (reading to bond st) let alone out the other side? Its not all about heathrow.

      • Swifty says:
        7 Nov7 November 12:12

        I prefer to call them “my kids” but ” the masses with incontinence issues” will be my go to from now!

    • Blenz101 says:
      6 Nov6 November 08:01

      It’s a metro style service with fast and frequent trains. Toilets are available at stations.

      Other than Dubai I can’t think of any other metro style service which offers first class separation.

      I think international visitors will be impressed with clean and modern trains. I’d take it over the subway in NYC any day!

      • The Hunter says:
        6 Nov6 November 08:43

        Well said

      • meta says:
        6 Nov6 November 09:26

        It won’t stay clean or modern for long that’s for sure as no further investment other than essential maintenance will be made.

      • John says:
        6 Nov6 November 09:36

        Hong Kong East Rail has first class – that line goes to the border with mainland China which is closed until further notice

        • Blenz101 says:
          6 Nov6 November 10:42

          The metro line in HK which serves the airport which would be the comparator here for international visitors does not.

    • G says:
      6 Nov6 November 08:16

      If you can’t hold it in for 45 minutes I think that’s the least of your problems.

      • Skywalker says:
        6 Nov6 November 09:15

        No First Class for 45 minutes either…. ( 😀 )

        • Chris says:
          6 Nov6 November 09:51

          I suspect F on Hex isnt popular; I can only remember one occasion when there was another passenger in F when I have been on it.

      • SK says:
        6 Nov6 November 09:19

        Lol

      • Thywillbedone says:
        6 Nov6 November 10:08

        * I can hold it for 45 minutes therefore everybody should be able to *

        Sounding a lot like the type who probably finds wheelchair ramps “a waste of money” …

    • Andrew J says:
      6 Nov6 November 08:31

      Were you wanting a light meal served during the journey too?

    • Mr(s) Entitled says:
      6 Nov6 November 09:10

      No need for an or. Just take your litter with you and dispose of it yourself.

      • Skywalker says:
        6 Nov6 November 09:20

        +1 Mr(s) Entitled – agreed wholeheartedly, but if someone spills champagne or caviar on the floor, this might prove a little more difficult

        😀

      • meta says:
        6 Nov6 November 09:28

        Agreed, but most people are pigs and it will not be picked up by staff either as they can’t be bothered to do their job.

        • Alex Sm says:
          6 Nov6 November 11:40

          If people are pigs, litter bins will not help. We just need to look after ourselves and not to be pigs ourselves before calling others that…

    • SK says:
      6 Nov6 November 09:22

      👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

    • Andrew. says:
      6 Nov6 November 13:28

      No toilets on Edinburgh trams.
      No toilets at Edinbugh Park station either. Thank goodness for the big Tesco at Hermiston Gait.

  • Adam says:
    6 Nov6 November 08:12

    So….if weren’t in a rush and perhaps waiting for the next train from T5 jump on Piccadilly for free to Hatton Cross, tap out. Tap back in and back to T2/3 to join the Elizabeth Line. Avoid fee. Assume this would work.
    Isn’t Heathrow mostly owned by Qatar who happen to reside at T4?

    • lumma says:
      6 Nov6 November 08:16

      The crossrail/Heathrow express station at T2/3 is a long walk from the tube station. The tube station is close to T2 and the rail station is close to T3.

      You could take the Heathrow Express one stop to T2/3 and then pick up a Elizabeth line train though and not pay any more

    • SK says:
      6 Nov6 November 09:24

      Good move if you’ve no heavy luggage with you

      • Nick says:
        6 Nov6 November 09:49

        The Hatton Cross trick won’t work because there are separate gatelines at Heathrow Central, no linking tunnels, and no OSI in place.

        • Adam says:
          6 Nov6 November 13:38

          Thanks for clarifying. Wasn’t sure. The odd EL treat then when in a rush

    • Rui N. says:
      6 Nov6 November 11:45

      Biggest shareholder is Spanish. Qatar owns as much of HAL as of IAG, so shouldn’t be a major differentiator.

    • Londonsteve says:
      6 Nov6 November 12:24

      What on earth does this achieve, why wouldn’t you take the HEX one stop to Terminals 2/3 and pick up an EL train from there, if the next departure from T5 was not an EL service? You would pay the standard EL fare when you tap out at the end of your journey, irrespective of whether you got to T2/3 on an EL train or a HEX train (long as you don’t accidentally stay on the HEX train and end up at Paddington, £25 lighter….).

  • lumma says:
    6 Nov6 November 08:13

    The moaners are out in force this morning in the comments I see. Surprised not to see a complaint about another London centric article however.

  • MT says:
    6 Nov6 November 08:14

    The reason for only 2 trains from T5 and 4 from T4 is to maintain a connection at T4. As the HEX will still go 4 times an hour from T5 it is a very easy change from HEX to EL at T2/3 Rail Station.
    If the split at been 4 from T5 and 2 from T4, it would have meant arriving passangers having upto a 30 minute wait for a connection to T2/3 Rail, which obviously would not be acceptable.

    It would be great to get rid of the HEX and have “Fast EL” trains running from Heathrow direct to Paddington and onwards, but clearly this is highly unlikely to ever happen unless HEX becomes so unproffitable that it ceases to exist, then who knows!

  • Roosit says:
    6 Nov6 November 08:16

    Delighted that it’s running every day now but by booking Heathrow Express tickets at least 90 days in advance for £5.50, with a non-stop HEx service to Paddington, it seems to me that is remains the faster and cheaper option to change there. I appreciate that for some people the fact they don’t have to change anymore is more important though.

    • Andrew J says:
      6 Nov6 November 08:34

      And the service is more frequent than HEX for T2/3.

    • Alex Sm says:
      6 Nov6 November 11:46

      How many people are realistically booking these tix? A very small %%. Others pay more

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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