Elizabeth Line (CrossRail) opened 24th May 2022

The six validators for Abbey Wood should have been installed by now but I don't know whether they have been activated. The target was to have them all ready for 6 November.

I Interchanged between paper ticket and oyster at Abbey Wood this afternoon, and there were no validators in sight.

Much this could be fixed by having on train validators like boarding a bus.

Farringdon is now a major three route interchange, all with complete wide through gangway stock (345 700 S) trains - but by services that are leaky in terms how travel could be fiddled through unmanned / ungated stations.

These days one validator per car is peanuts in the grand scale of things - quantity of 345 + 700 + S cars (3173) notwithstanding; or one every alternate car then ~1600 or so.

OK that quantity of validators is OTT compared with having a few at strategic locations within Farringdon platforms if, but only if, you consider Farringdon only - but they'd be available the full length of the routes.

Trains are now running through from the GWML and the GEML to the new tunnelled section.

I am planning a site visit this afternoon!

Earlier this afternoon I went to see for myself.

As my westbound Central line train arrived at Stratford I saw that a westbound Elizabeth line train was on the other side of the cross platform interchange, but to my dismay the train's doors were closed. To my eyes it looked like the driver had invoked the age old canard of waiting for the other train to arrive before closing its doors and starting to depart (ie: so that arriving passengers had to wait for the next train). At least that 'next train' was scheduled to be less than 10 minutes away - in the past on winter Sundays it would be a 30 minute wait! (This issue was very easily remediated in the days of slam door trains)

But something then went wrong with the train at platform 5 and to cut a long story short it did reopen its doors and waiting passengers were able to board it - only to be informed that the train 'had a problem' (my words) and would not be entering the tunnels. Instead it was being diverted to the surface Liverpool Street station.

Happily after a short wait the next (late running) train arrived and mere minutes later I was at Whitechapel. It was so seamless.

At Whitechapel I tried to film (video) the scrolling route map about the platform doors. I am not sure it worked - the scrolling text blurs.

Something similar happened to the train I was on between Acton Main Line and Paddington - when we reached the CBTC boundary, the train halted and the driver announced he was waiting for the signalling system to recognise his train. We proceeded on again shortly after that but given this is supposed to take place at line speed it seems they may still have a few gremlins to resolve with the signalling switchovers.

Hope this won't have too big an impact on workings in the coming weekdays.

I was at Bond Street today and noticed that on the westbound platform, the PIDS above door 7 intermittently showed eastbound trains, switching back to the correct westbound trains a few seconds later. Although only this display was doing it. It also showed the “Train Departing - Stand Back” message 30 seconds or so after the other displays did. Weird. Does this happen occasionally?

Apologies for the double post but I wanted to share that the exact same thing has happened for a second day in a row, I think tomorrow I'll get an even earlier train and hopefully finally get to experience some westbound through running (I did come home via the core yesterday evening).

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Though this is more anecdotal, I haven’t noticed any issues when travelling on a District line train switching signalling systems at Fulham Broadway — but this isn’t done at line speed so if it takes longer than expected no passengers would really realise since it’s done when the train is not moving (I guess). Given that this has happened on a few occasions everyday on the Elizabeth line, it does seem that it’s ‘too common’ for comfort.

I was on 9Y75 (345050), the 12:34 from Harold Wood earlier today, hoping to get to Tottenham Court Road. Admittedly, I was wearing headphones so didn't hear any announcements but there was a delay departing Stratford and we sailed past the tunnel portal, with the train still showing next station Whitechapel, and destination Paddington on the PIS.
I was annoyed as I had already walked to car 9 for my easy interchange at TCR so had to walk to the front when we pulled into Liverpool Street platform 16. Interestingly, I saw, as I walked along the platform, a number of people still sitting on the train, probably expecting the train to (somehow) continue its journey to Paddington.

Terrible driver announcements on a westbound train at Canary Wharf and Whitechapel this lunchtime.

At Canary Wharf he announced that anyone going to the London Stadium should alight at the next station. No afternoon events.

At Whitechapel he announced that this train is going west. If you want to go east towards Stratford and Shenfield alight here and wait for the appropriate train. No mention of changing platform. Lots of very confused people.

Another problem with the screens is the very thin line through the station name where the train will not be calling. It's hardly visible.

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Another one from me!

My train this morning was diagnosed with a train fault and was changed to a Liverpool Street service before it even got to my station. It was running two minutes late but I'm curious as to how the fault was identified before reaching Stratford, I can only assume that it has been identified as a consistently problematic unit. This makes me question whether the issue is more with certain units and less so the signalling system itself.

Here's the thing though, the automated platform announcement announced the following (I've shortened it where it isn't relevant): "The next train... service to London Liverpool Street, calling at...and London Liverpool Street...this train will not be calling at Whitechapel, Liverpool Street, Farringdon...this is due to a fault with this train" so the system automatically announces the train would not call at Liverpool Street despite being the destination, I can only assume that its programmed in as a separate station entirely.

The train then appeared to change it's own destination back to Paddington as we arrived into Stratford to which then the driver followed up with this corker: "This train is going all stations to Liverpool Street, well not all stations because the next stop will be Liverpool Street. If you need all stations to Paddington change here for the Central Line or change at Liverpool Street for a National Rail service".

Tomorrow I actually have to travel through the core so let's see what tomorrow brings us!

Overheard on ITV London just now re strikes: “Every single underground line was shut except for the Elizabeth line”.

Aware that some are tired of the Crossrail/Elizabeth line naming debate but this is clearly a glaring issue with the current name.

On the topic of Elizabeth line trains which travel on the Great Western and Great Eastern Main Lines travelling through the central London tunnels, its taken me a week to accomplish this but I have now completed a YouTube film showing this.

Almost 10 minutes long (and that is after I deleted some scenes!) the film visits both tunnel portals and more. It also includes some of the alternative services which still travel into the central London terminus stations (Paddington, Liverpool Street).

Mostly filmed in November 2022 but with a few earlier scenes

Enjoy,

Simon



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