Class 345 Testing and Introduction

A limerick called three, four, five:

Crossrail had some trains classed as three four five
But their computers had a reputation for taking a bit of a dive
Summer came and they thought they’d fixed it
But hours passed today and it only bricked it
So Old Oak Common it was for another surmise

Wahey!

And then there were three. Last week saw the lone airport 345 joined by two more Full Length Units working the PAD-HAY shuttle service. Due to rotations of the fleet made possible by the scarce few diagrams covered by FLU's, several units have made their debut in passenger service.

The ambition stands to have the airport service uplifted to 4tph come September. Heathrow Express operations whilst a factor are not prohibitive in achieving this.

Not at present since diagrams are clustered so a timetable recast is going to be a prerequisite. But T5 can definitely take an increased TfL Rail service plus whatever frequency HEX choose to run with going forwards.

Are £8.90 Senior Railcard zone 1-6 ODTC tickets valid on Crossrail 345s at Heathrow? I plan to be in west London on Wednesday so would be willing to go and see for myself.

Yes indeed, 9 car Class 345s are carrying fare paying passengers to Heathrow Airport. But from what I saw only half-hourly - I say this because when I arrived at Ealing Broadway a 7 car 345 going to the bay platform at Hays & Harlington was the first train.

Its my first time on a 9 car 345 - and bit of a walk from one end to t'other end. I think I'll need an electric scooter! (joke)

At Heathrow T5 I was told by some airport bods that whilst the airport is allowed to use CCTV and film everyone, the people being filmed are not allowed to use *their* cameras.

In other words, the people who run the airport understand about plane spotting, but not about train spotting. So its with much regret that I did not get all the photos I would have liked, but I hope to have something to share here either this evening or tomorrow. So far I've not even downloaded my images (or video) from my cameras.

Given all that I've read over recent years about signalling technical issues, etc, seeing these trains actually reaching Heathrow is a milestone event. Slowly slowly, we get there! Just a pity its so slowly - just like my Central line train from Ealing Broadway to Gants Hill... (not helped by the train I was in being halted between stations so that a train from the West Ruislip route was able to go in front where the two routes merge).

Thanks goldenarrow for that information, I had one of these tickets. Made life easy!

Thanks goldenarrow

I was actually shown a sign that quite clearly stated 'no photography'.

I also told them that I am considering getting a pair of eye glasses which have a built in camera. The only reason why I have not already done this is that I need prescription lenses and as yet I have not found anything which is suitable.

Anyway, I avoided conflict and left the station on the same train as I had arrived.

On my travels I also saw work progressing on several stations - West Ealing is getting a brand new station building which will be a bit of a walk down a side road and away from the bus stops, I suppose it means that the existing station building (complete with BR double arrow in its brickwork) will be closed.

I also noted works underway at Ealing Broadway, Southall and Hayes & Harlington - especially the latter station has been a mess for quite a few years.

At Ealing Broadway passengers arriving on a Central line train who wanted a train heading west (Reading, etc) were being forced to walk along platform 4 to the new steps at the far end the station - if my understanding is correct those steps were installed to improve access to Crossrail trains but alas the job was only half done as they do not serve either the Central line nor the District line platforms. Its a big shame as these are the passengers who are the most likely to want to interchange to / from Crossrail trains at this station.

Chris, I suppose that once the bureaucracy was honoured and you submitted written requests in triplicate (etc) you were allowed to perform your allotted tasks.

As one of my tweeted images shows, the sign that forbids photography is relatively new - it even includes wearing masks!

Chris, whilst there I told them how it is possible to film in ways that they would not see. Even though they were wearing face masks I saw shock on their faces when they heard what I told them is possible. I was surprised that they had no idea.

Well I hope everyone has enjoyed the four months of class 345's serving Heathrow T5 because they are about to be booted off for most of the day!

From 14 December, TfL Rail services will only serve Heathrow T5 after 8PM on weekdays and on weekends only. At all other times, services will be detrained at Heathrow T2&3 and run empty to T4 to reverse. No frequency changes are planned till May 2021 at the earliest.

Is Heathrow T4 open at the moment?

Sounds like its related to either something which happened (that we do not know about) or (perhaps more likely, as its planned in advance) testing that all is well with these trains serving T4 without running extra trains.

How will passengers get to T5?

Piccadilly line?

Would this be related to the planned HeX services being upped back to 4tph when their new trains are being introduced, hence no space for TfL Rail services.

It's been reported on forums afar that virtually everything on TfL Rail East is 345 bar some peak time workings as of this most recent timetable change.