Elizabeth Line journey times to Heathrow cut from today – but T5 loses Canary Wharf services

Elizabeth Line train times to Heathrow will be cut from today, 21st May, when the final timetable is introduced.

For the first time, trains are running on all branches throughout the entire line. This means that services from Shenfield now continue onto the Western branch instead of terminating at Paddington.

With some jiggery pokery of track rights, two trains per hour from Shenfield will now run semi-fast between Paddington and Heathrow T2/3 and T5. They will only stop at Ealing Broadway, West Ealing and Hayes & Harlington.

Journey times for these two hourly services are timetabled at as little as 24 minutes from Paddington to Terminals 2/3 and 29 minutes to Terminal 5.

Apart from these two fast hourly services, two slower Elizabeth Lines trains will continue to serve all stations between Paddington and Terminals 2/3 and Terminal 4.

Other benefits of the changes today are direct trains from Stratford, Ilford and Romford to Heathrow and the removal of the waiting that often occurs on Elizabeth Line trains at Paddington whilst other trains are given priority.

The downside is that there are no longer direct services between Canary Wharf and Terminal 5 except for some early morning and late evening services. Trains to the airport on the Canary Wharf branch will now terminate at Terminal 4.