Just 11 days to go
WEST Londoners are just days away from new Crossrail trains running through their part of town as TfL takes over suburban rail services from Great Western Rail.
Transport for London will be taking over the Heathrow Connect service between Paddington and Terminals 2, 3 and 4 at Heathrow, which was formerly run by Great Western Railway.
The new service will be known as TfL Rail.
However, the new Elizabeth line trains, which have already been running on the eastern TfL Rail route from Liverpool Street to Shenfield for nearly a year, will only run as far as Hayes & Harlington.
Passengers wishing to travel from Paddington to Heathrow on the Heathrow Connect will still be able to take two trains an hour, which will continue to be the same as normal.
The twice-hourly Hayes and Harlington Service will use the new Bombardier trains, featured throughout the Elizabeth Line when the central section opens in May 2019. The changes will take effect from Sunday May 20.
A spokeswoman for Transport for London told getwestlondon that the delay in rolling out the trains beyond Hayes to Heathrow is due to signalling issues in the tunnels leading to the airport.
The plan was originally for four trains an hour to travel between Paddington and Heathrow, but the contingency plan is set to continue for the immediate future, with full service on the trains expected to start later this year.
Howard Smith, TfL’s Operations Director for the Elizabeth Line, said: “From Sunday May 20, the current Heathrow Connect service between Heathrow Terminals 2/3, Heathrow Terminal 4 and Paddington will be transferred to TfL.
“We will operate the same service pattern – two trains per hour – to Heathrow as exists now, using the existing Heathrow Connect trains.
“We will also run two trains per hour between Paddington and Hayes & Harlington, which is the same frequency as now, using the new Elizabeth line trains.
“Our supplier Bombardier continues to test the Elizabeth line trains and the new signalling system in the Heathrow tunnel, once testing is complete we will increase the frequency to Heathrow to four trains per hour later this year.”
The takeover of services from Great Western does not include the Heathrow Express service, which will continue to run as normal.