Review: How easy is taking the Elizabeth Line from Heathrow to central London?

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• Ankur says:

  8 Nov8 November 04:51

  “… which would be reduced to £8.50 with a Railcard”

  It’s a shame that TfL don’t make it easy to add/claim railcard discounts when paying by contactless, since this can only be linked to physical Oyster cards. I often don’t like to carry a separate Oyster card or forget it, but I’ve always suspected this is to keep overall numbers of people applying for railcard discounts low while usage with contactless has taken off.

  • highflycariocaseb says:

    9 Nov9 November 06:22

    Is this true then as you said above? The railcard discount can only be applied if I use an Oyster card with my railcard loaded onto it? It makes more sense to me to take HEX with an advance saver ticket, apply the railcard (+ earn Avios) and pay £7.30 rtn for that journey between Paddington and LHR. From Paddington you then continue to your final destination with PAYG on your contactless…

• Jenny says:

  8 Nov8 November 05:31

  Given it’s only just opened, it’s disappointing to see the Elizabeth Line section to Heathrow closed on the weekend of 19-20 November. I was looking forward to trying it.

• DavidB says:

  8 Nov8 November 05:33

  Did this last night albeit just between T2/3 and my hotel @T4. Will head into the city later today on it too, though just to Ealing Broadway. Odd though that T4 gets more frequent trains than the much busier T5.

  • John says:

    8 Nov8 November 05:51

    It doesn’t… Both T4 and T5 are served every half an hour. But T5 additionally has Heathrow Express which will let you get the next train from T4 to London rather than waiting for the next T5 train.

    • SamG says:

      8 Nov8 November 08:59

      I believe T4 will have 4 trains at some point (May?) Presumably they want to keep the HEX at T5 to maximise profits

      • Tim says:

        8 Nov8 November 15:21

        They don’t *want* to keep HEX at T5, but HEX have a contract for 40 years which doesn’t expire until 2038. Until then, HEX (which is part owned by BA) keeps its paths to T5. After that date, I suspect EL frequncies to T5 will increase and GWR will gain the use of 2 extra mainline platforms.

        • Nick says:

          8 Nov8 November 17:42

          BA does not own any of HEx.

        • Tim says:

          14 Nov14 November 15:25

          I stand corrected. Heathrow (BAA) owns HEx, not BA. I was conflating it with Eurostar which I believe BA did/does have a chare in

• John says:

  8 Nov8 November 05:48

  The lifts are generally always faster than the escalators.

  The train was not ahead of schedule at Westbourne Park, it was on time, the standing time is planned, in order to reduce the impact of delays on the Great Western Main Line which could ruin the tight schedule in the tunnels

  • Ian says:

    8 Nov8 November 07:38

    But please bear in mind disabled people who do not have a choice.

    • Save East Coast Rewards says:

      8 Nov8 November 09:30

      There are multiple lifts at the Heathrow stations and the airport always says the fastest way is to use the lifts.

  • Rhys says:

    8 Nov8 November 09:34

    Yes, which is why I normally take them. But for some reason they always seem really slow even when it isn’t busy!

    • Bagoly says:

      8 Nov8 November 11:06

      “Safety” said they have to have low acceleration and deceleration.

• meta says:

  8 Nov8 November 06:40

  At Farringdon station, if you transfer from underground to Elisabeth line you have to get out of the underground station cross the street and go back down to the Elisabeth line. It’s beyond belief that they just couldn’t make an underground tunnel.

  • James says:

    8 Nov8 November 07:23

    You really don’t. Come out of the Lizzy line and it takes you straight onto the Thameslink platforms – walk along and you can cross the bridge over to the tube. You can also walk a few meters over the street. I’m not sure how you could make it easier!

    • meta says:

      8 Nov8 November 07:59

      The fact that you have to describe it in so many words, walking along the platforms, crossing bridges or streets makes it neither smooth nor easy, especially with luggage. There is no direct EL to tube link and it is evident if you look on Google Maps.

      They should have really built the underground tunnel. For me, it makes more sense to continue to use Piccadilly line.

      • aseftel says:

        8 Nov8 November 08:08

        It’s pretty quick and easy to EL at Farringdon if you are coming/going to the eastbound tube: take the lift from the southbound Thameslink platform, which is only a few steps from the tube. I agree it is a pain if you want to get to the westbound tube lines.

      • James says:

        8 Nov8 November 08:11

        It takes no more than 2 minutes to reach the tube from the lizzy line escalator – what were you expecting? A moving tunnel that deposits you on the actual tube! It’s a very easy change and shorter than many tube changes at Bank.

        • meta says:

          8 Nov8 November 11:21

          @James Exactly that. I shouldn’t have to go up then down. It’s a bad construction and design. It should be friendly to people with bulky luggage. Otherwise what’s the point, plus the service is not frequent enough. If you live close to one of the stations perhaps it works for you, but for me Piccadilly line is still faster and cheaper and smoother.

      • lumma says:

        8 Nov8 November 08:42

        If Farringdon is an issue, stay on for one more stop and change at Liverpool Street for Moorgate which is an easy interchange (make sure you’re in coach 3).

        For King’s Cross change at Tottenham Court Road for the Northern Line

        • Save East Coast Rewards says:

          8 Nov8 November 09:33

          Tottenham Court Road has no direct link to King’s Cross. There’s two branches of the Northern line and KGX is served by the other one.

    • aseftel says:

      8 Nov8 November 08:01

      Well they could have installed oyster touch points by the TL-EL entrance for passengers making a national rail to EL interchange.

      • gibssssi says:

        8 Nov8 November 09:27

        this is the key point.

        Borderline fraud not having them there.

        • Roy says:

          8 Nov8 November 10:47

          I don’t understand. You touch out at one entrance and touch in at the other, and the system automatically merges it into a single journey. It’s called an Out of Station Interchange (OSI) and hardly unique to Farringdon (or the Elizabeth line).

  • memesweeper says:

    8 Nov8 November 11:50

    1. no you don’t – you can stay within the gateline by travelling via the thameslink platforms
    2. if you are on the anti-clock circle / westbound H&C or Met you can also get off at Barbican and use the (unadvertised) lift at the end of the platform to descend to Her Majesty’s line

    • Roy says:

      8 Nov8 November 14:14

      Sure. I’m just trying to figure out what aspect of the current arrangements other posters seem to regard as “borderline fraud”.

      I was guessing that they thought they’d be charged for two journeys if they left the station, but maybe they meant something else?

• The real Swiss Tony says:

  8 Nov8 November 06:41

  And as I think was pointed out at the weekend, Shenfield only links as far as Paddington right now. Only Canary Wharf trains run through to Heathrow.

  • Patrick C says:

    8 Nov8 November 07:40

    this will stay like that. But you cna literally change in the central tunnels by going out and waiting a few minutes. There is close to 0 added value in making these trains run to heathrow.

    • Marc says:

      8 Nov8 November 08:30

      You will be able to go from Shenfield branch to Heathrow from May 23.

    • lumma says:

      8 Nov8 November 08:43

      Next year the shenfield trains will run beyond Paddington

    • BuildBackBetter says:

      8 Nov8 November 08:53

      Some value for those with luggage and kids.

• Maurits Kalff says:

  8 Nov8 November 06:50

  Only two trains an hour from T5 is a huge disappointment.

  • Michael Jennings says:

    8 Nov8 November 07:04

    There is capacity at T5 station to turn around a maximum of six trains an hour. Four of them are Heathrow Express services, and two are Elizabeth Line. TfL would love to replace the HEx services with Elizabeth line services, but Heathrow Airport doesn’t want this, and they own the station and the line into Heathrow.

    • lumma says:

      8 Nov8 November 08:44

      You can also jump on the Heathrow Express one stop for free to T2/3 and pick up an Elizabeth line train there

    • Rhys says:

      8 Nov8 November 09:36

      Maybe at some point Heathrow will cut a deal with TFL to have 6 Lizzy trains, half of which could be ‘express’ services into central London? That would be pleasant!

      • Tim says:

        14 Nov14 November 15:27

        Not sure “express” trains would work on that line. Trains travelling at different speeds on the same line kills capacity

    • Roy says:

      8 Nov8 November 10:50

      I don’t really understand this. Aren’t HEX trains evenly spaced every 15 minutes?

      Surely that’s either time to turn round an Elizabeth line train between two HEX trains or there isn’t?

      • Bagoly says:

        8 Nov8 November 11:17

        Perhaps the staff tasked with walking through the train to check for bombs have to have two breaks an hour?

        • Roy says:

          8 Nov8 November 18:01

          Of all the security threats to worry about, this has always seemed to me like an odd one…

• Terry Butcher says:

  8 Nov8 November 06:58

  And what a huge missed opportunity not to aim the service at Heathrow Airport passengers – for example, each and every train stops at each and every little station along the way.

  Surely the schedule could be implemented so that some of the trains stop only at, say Ealing Broadway and then Hayes and Harlington before going straight to the airport.

  Clearly this is a local train service which then simply continues to the airport.

  Pathetic!

  • Andrew J says:

    8 Nov8 November 07:02

    That’s called the Heathrow Express.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    8 Nov8 November 07:53

    So what you want is Heathrow Express … Heathrow have done this for a reason.

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    8 Nov8 November 09:35

    You know that makes zero sense at all yes? You want two different services but call them both EL, one stopping and one… um.. Express – sound a little like the thing that already exists?

  • Roy says:

    8 Nov8 November 10:52

    The Elizabeth line *does* skip a few stations on most journeys!

    • jjoohhnn says:

      8 Nov8 November 12:37

      If only they had kept skipping Bond Street, it would have made most journeys faster!

      • Tim says:

        8 Nov8 November 15:24

        nope. When Bond Street opened, journey times stayed the same.

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