Crossrail

The concept of large-diameter tunnels crossing central London to connect Paddington in the west and Liverpool Street in the east was first proposed by railwayman George Dow in The Star newspaper in June 1941.[8] The project that became Crossrail has origins in the 1943 County of London Plan and 1944 Greater London Plan by Patrick Abercrombie. These led to a specialist investigation by the Railway (London Plan) Committee, appointed in 1944 and reporting in 1946 and 1948.[9]

The term "Crossrail" emerged in the 1974 London Rail Study Report.[10] Although the idea was seen as imaginative, only a brief estimate of cost was given: £300 million. A feasibility study was recommended as a high priority so that the practicability and costs of the scheme could be determined. It was also suggested that the alignment of the tunnels should be safeguarded[11] while a final decision was taken.

The Central London Rail Study of 1989 proposed tunnels linking the existing rail network as the "East–West Crossrail", "City Crossrail", and "North–South Crossrail" schemes. The east–west scheme was for a line from Liverpool Street to Paddington/Marylebone with two connections at its western end linking the tunnel to the Great Western Main Line and the Metropolitan line on the Underground. The City route was shown as a new connection across the City of London linking the Great Northern Route with London Bridge.

The north–south line proposed routing West Coast Main Line, Thameslink, and Great Northern trains through Euston and King's Cross/St Pancras, then under the West End via Tottenham Court Road, Piccadilly Circus and Victoria towards Crystal Palace and Hounslow. The report also recommended a number of other schemes including a "Thameslink Metro" route enhancement, and the Chelsea–Hackney line. The cost of the east–west scheme including rolling stock was estimated at £885 million.[12]

In 1991 a private bill was submitted to Parliament for a scheme including a new underground line from Paddington to Liverpool Street.[13] The bill was promoted by London Underground and British Rail, and supported by the government; it was rejected by the Private Bill Committee in 1994[14] on the grounds that a case had not been made, though the government issued "Safeguarding Directions", protecting the route from any development that would jeopardise future schemes.[15]

In 2001 Cross London Rail Links (CLRL), a joint-venture between TfL and the DfT, was formed to develop and promote the Crossrail scheme,[16] and also a Wimbledon–Hackney scheme.

While CLRL was promoting the Crossrail project, alternative schemes were being proposed. In 2002 GB Railways put forward a scheme called SuperCrossRail which would link regional stations such as Cambridge, Guildford, Oxford, Milton Keynes Central, Southend Victoria and Ipswich via a west-east rail tunnel through central London. The tunnel would follow an alignment along the River Thames, with stations at Charing Cross, Blackfriars and London Bridge. In 2004 another proposal named Superlink was promoted by a group of senior railway managers. Like SuperCrossRail, Superlink envisaged linking a number of regional stations via a tunnel through London, but advocated the route already safeguarded for Crossrail. CLRL evaluated both proposals and rejected them due to concerns about network capacity and cost issues.[17][18]

Construction of the link with Liverpool Street at Moorgate, November 2018

The Crossrail Act 2008 was given royal assent in July 2008,[19][20] giving CLRL the powers necessary to build the line.[21] In September 2009, Tfl was loaned £1 billion towards the project by the European Investment Bank.[22] Both Conservatives and Labour made commitments in their 2010 election manifestos to deliver Crossrail, and the coalition government following the election was committed to the project.[23]

Currently the western terminus, Paddington will be a major interchange for Crossrail

The main western section runs on the Great Western main line from Reading to Paddington. Existing stations are being refurbished and upgraded, including the provision of step free access at all stations and platform lengthening for the new, longer trains.[28]

A "dive-under" was constructed at Acton to allow passenger trains to pass slower freight trains leaving and entering a goods yard. It was completed in July 2016 and was brought into use in 2017.[29][30]

The Heathrow spur has three stations – Heathrow Central (for Terminals 2 and 3), Terminal 4 and Terminal 5[25] – and joins the main route at Airport Junction, between West Drayton and Hayes & Harlington. A flyover near Hayes & Harlington station will allow Heathrow Express trains to pass over the track used by Crossrail, avoiding delays caused by crossings.[31]

Crossrail had been planned to terminate at Maidenhead, with an extension to Reading safeguarded.[32] Various commentators advocated an extension further west as far as Reading because it was seen as complementary to the Great Western Electrification project which was announced in July 2009.[33] A Reading terminus was also recommended by Network Rail's 2011 Route Utilisation Strategy.[34] On 27 March 2014, however, it was announced that the line would indeed extend to Reading.[26][27][35]

Map showing the geographic route of Crossrail (purple) alongside London Underground lines. The line runs alongside the Central line for much of the central section, and is expected to relieve pressure on it.

The central tunnels run from a portal just west of Paddington to Whitechapel, with further tunnelling to Stratford and to Canary Wharf.

There are new stations at Paddington, Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon, Liverpool Street and Whitechapel, with interchanges with London Underground and other National Rail services. The stations in the central section all have distinctive architecture at street level; at platform level stations have identical "kit-of-parts" architecture, including full height platform screen doors with integrated passenger information displays.[36]

Due to the size and positioning of the new platforms, Farringdon station will also be connected to Barbican station,[37] and Liverpool Street to Moorgate station.[38]

Liverpool Street (shown here in 2017) is currently the terminus of the eastern branches

One of the two eastern sections runs underground from Whitechapel to Stratford, then on the surface on the existing main line. The service will replace the "Shenfield metro", with key stops at Ilford, Romford (for interchange with London Overground services to Upminster), Gidea Park (where some peak hour trains will start or terminate), and Shenfield.[39]

The other eastern branch runs underground from Whitechapel to Abbey Wood via Canary Wharf, Custom House and Woolwich. This branch takes over a stretch of the former North London line built by the Eastern Counties and Thames Junction Railway, and connects it with the North Kent Line via a tunnel under the Thames at North Woolwich.[36]

Crossrail is the name of the construction project and of the limited company, wholly owned by TfL, that was formed to carry out construction works.[40][41]

Since May 2015, rail services on future Crossrail route that are now managed by TfL are being operated under the temporary brand name of TfL Rail. Trains on the Paddington–Heathrow and Liverpool Street–Shenfield routes are painted with Crossrail livery and bear the TfL Rail logo, a Transport for London Roundel in TfL Blue, emblazoned with the TfL Rail name in white.[42][43][44]

The 21 km (13 mi) of "twin bore" tunnels were constructed by Tunnel boring machines (TBM), each with an internal diameter of 6.2 m (20 ft 4 in)[45] (compared with 3.81 m (12 ft 6 in) for the deep-level Victoria line). The wide diameter tunnels allow for new Class 345 rolling stock, which is larger than the traditional deep-level tube trains. The tunnels allow for the emergency evacuation of passengers through the side-doors rather than along the length of the train.

The 21 km (13 mi) of tunnels are made of three main tunnel sections: a 15.39 km (9.6 mi) tunnel from Royal Oak portal near Royal Oak station to Victoria Dock portal near Custom House station, a 2.72 km (1.7 mi) tunnel from Pudding Mill Lane to Stepney Green junction, and a 2.64 km (1.6 mi) tunnel from Plumstead to North Woolwich underneath the Thames.[46]

Crossrail has often been compared to Paris' RER system due to the length of the central tunnel.[47][48]

Crossrail at Farringdon on a preview open day

Crossrail
All stations will have step-free access from street to train
Reading Twyford Maidenhead Taplow Burnham Slough Langley Heathrow Terminal 5 Iver Heathrow Terminal 4 M25 motorway Greater London boundary Heathrow Terminals 2 & 3 West Drayton Hayes & Harlington Southall Hanwell West Ealing Ealing Broadway Acton Main Line Old Oak Common depot Old Oak Common (planned) Ladbroke Grove (proposed) Westbound turn-back Royal Oak portal Paddington Bond Street Tottenham Court Road Farringdon Liverpool Street (low level) Liverpool Street (high level) (peak only services) Whitechapel   River Lea, City Mill River & Waterworks River   Canary Wharf Pudding Mill Lane portal Victoria Dock portal Stratford Custom House Maryland Connaught tunnel under Royal Docks Forest Gate River Thames Manor Park Woolwich Ilford Abbey Wood Seven Kings Safeguarded extension to Gravesend Goodmayes Chadwell Heath Romford Control Centre and depot Romford Gidea Park Harold Wood Greater London boundary M25 motorway Brentwood Shenfield

Ten new stations will be built in the central and south east sections of the line, and 31 existing stations will be upgraded and refurbished.[5] All stations will be fully equipped with CCTV[49] and, due to the length of the platforms, train indicators will be above the platform-edge doors in central stations.[50]

Although initially the trains will be 200 metres (660 feet) long, platforms at the new stations in the central core are built to enable 240 m (790 ft)-long trains in case of possible future need. In the eastern section, Maryland and Manor Park will not have platform extensions, so trains will use selective door opening instead.[51] At Maryland this is because of the prohibitive cost of extensions and the poor business case,[52] and at Manor Park it is due to the presence of a freight loop that would otherwise be cut off.[53]

A mock-up of the new stations was built in Bedfordshire in 2011 to ensure that their architectural integrity would last for a century.[54] It was planned to bring at least one mock-up to London for the public to view the design and give feedback before final construction commenced.[50]

It was announced in July 2017 that Crossrail services would be extended to Heathrow Terminal 5 in December 2019, meaning that all Heathrow terminals will have a Crossrail service when the full service commences between October 2020 and April 2021.[55]

Station	Image	Opened	Elizabeth line service began	Interchanges
Reading			2 January 2020 (2020-01-02)
Twyford			2 January 2020 (2020-01-02)
Maidenhead			2 January 2020 (2020-01-02)
Taplow			2 January 2020 (2020-01-02)
Burnham			2 January 2020 (2020-01-02)
Slough			2 January 2020 (2020-01-02)
Langley			2 January 2020 (2020-01-02)
Iver			2 January 2020 (2020-01-02)
West Drayton			2 January 2020 (2020-01-02)
Terminal 5			2 January 2020 (2020-01-02)
Terminal 4			2 January 2020 (2020-01-02)
Terminal 2&3			2 January 2020 (2020-01-02)
Hayes & Harlington			2 January 2020 (2020-01-02)
Southall			2 January 2020 (2020-01-02)
Hanwell			2 January 2020 (2020-01-02)
West Ealing			2 January 2020 (2020-01-02)
Ealing Broadway			2 January 2020 (2020-01-02)
Acton Mainline			2 January 2020 (2020-01-02)
Paddington			2 January 2020 (2020-01-02)
Bond Street			N/A
Tottenham Court Road			N/A
Farringdon			N/A
Liverpool Street			N/A
Whitechapel			N/A
Canary Wharf			N/A
Custom House			N/A
Woolwich			N/A
Abbey Wood			N/A
Stratford			N/A
Maryland			N/A
Forest Gate			N/A
Manor Park			N/A
Ilford			N/A
Seven Kings			N/A
Goodmayes			N/A
Romford			N/A
Gidea Park			N/A
Harold Wood			N/A
Brentwood			N/A
Shenfield			N/A

All 40 stations will be step free, with 13 of these stations (the Central and Heathrow stations) having level access from the train to platforms.[56]

As part of the High Speed 2 (HS2) rail link from London to Birmingham, a new station would be built at Old Oak Common between Paddington and Acton Main Line station.[57] The new station would connect HS2 services with Crossrail and National Rail services on Great Western Main Line, as well as London Overground services running through the area.[58] The station would open with High Speed 2 in 2026, with preliminary construction beginning in 2019.[59]

Crossrail will operate using the new Class 345 trains. These are currently being used on the two interim TfL rail branches that will later become part of the Elizabeth Line when it first opens.[60] The requirement was for 65 trains, each 200 metres (660 feet) long and carrying up to 1,500 passengers.[60] The trains are accessible, including dedicated areas for wheelchairs, with audio and visual announcements, CCTV and speaker-phones connected to the driver in case of emergency.[61] They will run at up to 140 km/h (90 mph) on certain parts of the route.[62]

In March 2011, Crossrail announced that five bidders had been shortlisted for the contract to build the Class 345 and its associated depot.[63] One of the bidders, Alstom, withdrew from the process in July 2011. In February 2012, Crossrail issued an invitation to negotiate to CAF, Siemens, Hitachi and Bombardier, with tenders expected to be submitted by mid-2012.[64] In 2013, Siemens also withdrew from the bid, but will provide signalling and control systems for Crossrail.[65]

In February 2014, Transport for London and the Department for Transport announced that the contract to build and maintain the new rolling stock had been awarded to Bombardier.[3] The contract covers the supply, delivery and maintenance of 65 new trains and a depot at Old Oak Common. The trains are being built at Bombardier's Derby Litchurch Lane Works. This contract will support around 760 UK manufacturing jobs plus 80 apprenticeships. An estimated 74 per cent of contract spend is expected to remain in the UK economy.[66] The design will be based on Bombardier's Aventra design. The first Class 345 train entered service in June 2017 and they are notable in that they are the first mainline trains in Britain since 1962 to not have a yellow warning panel of any kind painted on the driving ends.[67]

Crossrail will use 25 kV, 50 Hz AC overhead lines, as on the Great Eastern Main Line and the Great Western Main Line. Overhead electrification has been installed between Airport Junction and Didcot Parkway as part of the 21st-century modernisation of the Great Western Main Line (GWML upgrade), but Crossrail will only use it as far as Reading.

Signalling is a mixture of ETCS 2 on the western branches from 2019; communication-based train control with automatic train operation on the core and the Abbey Wood branch (with a possible later upgrade to ETCS); and Automatic Warning System with Train Protection & Warning System on the Great Western Main Line and Great Eastern Main Line.[68][69][70]

Crossrail will have a depot in West London at Old Oak Common and another at a new signalling centre at Romford in Essex.[71][72]

Construction of Crossrail at Tottenham Court Road in September 2011

In April 2009, Crossrail announced that 17 firms had secured 'Enabling Works Framework Agreements' and would now be able to compete for packages of works.[73] At the peak of construction up to 14,000 people were expected to be needed in the project's supply chain.[74][75]

Work began on 15 May 2009 when piling works started at the future Canary Wharf station.[76]

The threat of diseases being released by work on the project was raised by Lord James of Blackheath at the passing of the Crossrail Bill. He told the House of Lords select committee that 682 victims of anthrax had been brought into Smithfield in Farringdon with some contaminated meat in 1520 and then buried in the area.[77] On 24 June 2009 it was reported that no traces of anthrax or bubonic plague had been found on human bone fragments discovered during tunnelling.[78]

Invitations to tender for the two principal tunnelling contracts were published in the Official Journal of the European Union in August 2009. 'Tunnels West' (C300) was for twin 6.2 kilometres (3.9 mi)-long tunnels from Royal Oak through to the new Crossrail Farringdon Station, with a portal west of Paddington. The 'Tunnels East' (C305) request was for three tunnel sections and 'launch chambers' in east London.[79] Contracts were awarded in late 2010: the 'Tunnels West' contract was awarded to BAM Nuttall, Ferrovial Agroman and Kier Construction (BFK); the 'Tunnels East' contract was awarded to Dragados and John Sisk & Son.[80][81] The remaining tunnelling contract (C310, Plumstead to North Woolwich), which included a tunnel under the Thames, was awarded to Hochtief and J. Murphy & Sons in 2011.[82]

By September 2009, preparatory work for the £1 billion developments at Tottenham Court Road station had begun, with buildings (including the Astoria Theatre) being compulsorily purchased and demolished.[83]

In March 2010, contracts were awarded to civil engineering companies for the second round of 'enabling work' including 'Royal Oak Portal Taxi Facility Demolition', 'Demolition works for Crossrail Bond Street Station', 'Demolition works for Crossrail Tottenham Court Road Station' and 'Pudding Mill Lane Portal'.[84] In December 2010, contracts were awarded for most of the tunnelling work.[85] To assist with the skills required for the Crossrail project, Crossrail Ltd opened in 2011 the Tunnelling and Underground Construction Academy in Ilford.[86] The Academy was handed over to Transport for London in 2017, who have sub contracted its management to PROCAT.[87]

In February 2010, Crossrail was accused of bullying residents whose property lay on the route into selling for less than the market value.[88] A subsequent London Assembly report was highly critical of the insensitive way in which Crossrail had dealt with compulsory purchases and the lack of assistance given to the people and businesses affected.[89] There were also complaints from music fans, as the London Astoria was forced to close.[90]

The second Tunnel Boring Machine "Ada" en route to the Royal Oak Portal, June 2012

In December 2011, a contract to ship the excavated material from the tunnel to Wallasea Island[91] was awarded to a joint venture comprising BAM Nuttall Limited and Van Oord UK Limited.[92][93] Between 4.5 and 5 million tonnes of soil would be used to construct a new wetland nature reserve (Wallasea Wetlands).[91][94] The project eventually moved seven million tons of earth.[95]

Restoration of Connaught Tunnel by filling with concrete foam and reboring, as originally intended, was deemed too great a risk to the structural integrity of the tunnel, and so the docks above were drained to give access to the tunnel roof in order to enlarge its profile. This work took place during 2013.[96][97]

Boring of the railway tunnels was officially completed at Farringdon on 4 June 2015 in the presence of the Prime Minister and the Mayor of London.[98]

Installation of the track was completed in September 2017.[99] The ETCS signalling was scheduled to be tested in the Heathrow tunnels over the winter of 2017/18.[100] The south east section of the infrastructure was energised in February 2018, with the first test train run between Plumstead and Abbey Wood that month.[101] In May 2018 the overhead lines were powered up between Westborne Park and Stepney and the installation of platform doors was completed,[102] and video was released of the first trains travelling through the tunnels.[103]

TfL Rail took over Heathrow Connect services from Paddington to Heathrow in May 2018.[104][100]

At the end of August 2018, four months before the scheduled opening of the core section of the line, it was announced that completion was delayed and that the line would not open before Autumn 2019.[105]

In April 2019, it was announced that Crossrail would be completed between October 2020 and March 2021, two years behind schedule, and that it would not include the opening of the Bond Street station, one of ten new stations on the line.[106][107] The London Assembly's transport committee concluded that Transport for London (TfL) played down the prospect of delays to the project in updates to Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, and called for TfL commissioner Mike Brown to consider his position.[108] Crossrail said major challenges before completion included writing and testing the software that would integrate the train with three different track signalling systems, and installing equipment inside the tunnels.[106]

The project used eight 7.1-metre (23-foot) diameter tunnel-boring machines (TBM) from Herrenknecht AG (Germany). Two types are used; 'slurry' type for the Thames tunnel, which involves tunnelling through chalk; and 'Earth Pressure Balance Machines' (EPBM) for tunnelling through clay, sand and gravel (at lower levels through Lambeth Group and Thanet Sands ground formation). The TBMs weigh nearly 1,000 tonnes and are over 100 metres (330 feet) long.[45][109] The main tunnelling contracts are valued at around £1.5 billion.[110]

The TBMs were named (per tradition). Crossrail ran a competition in January 2012 in which over 2500 entries were received and 10 pairs of names short-listed. After a public vote in February 2012, the first three pairs of names were announced on 13 March and the last pair on 16 August 2013:[111][112]

• Ada and Phyllis, Royal Oak to Farringdon section, named after Ada Lovelace and Phyllis Pearsall
• Victoria and Elizabeth, Limmo Peninsula to Farringdon section, named after Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II
• Mary and Sophia, Plumstead to North Woolwich section, named after the wives of Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Marc Isambard Brunel
• Jessica and Ellie, Pudding Mill Lane to Stepney Green and Limmo Peninsula to Victoria Dock sections, named after Jessica Ennis and Ellie Simmonds

The collapsed gantry (29 September 2012)

The Tottenham Court Road construction site (2009). This included the former site of the London Astoria music venue.

In 2012, Crossrail faced accusations of blacklisting. It was revealed that an industrial relations manager, Ron Barron, employed by Bechtel, had routinely cross-checked job applicants against the Consulting Association database.[113] An employment tribunal in 2010 heard that Barron introduced the use of the blacklist at his former employer, the construction firm Chicago Bridge & Iron Company (CB&I), and referred to it more than 900 times in 2007 alone. He was found to have unlawfully refused employment to a Philip Willis. Aggravated damages were awarded because Barron had added information about Willis to the blacklist.[113]

In May 2012, a BFK manager challenged their subcontractor, Electrical Installations Services Ltd. (EIS), saying that one of their electricians was a trade union activist. Some days later, Pat Swift, the HR manager for BFK and a regular user of the Consulting Association, again challenged EIS. EIS refused to dismiss their worker and lost the contract. Flash pickets were held at the Crossrail site and also at the sites of the BFK partners. The Scottish Affairs Select Committee called on the UK Business Secretary, Vince Cable, to set up a government investigation into blacklisting at Crossrail.[114][115] The electrician was reinstated.[116] Further allegations of blacklisting against Crossrail were made in Parliament in September 2017.[117]

In September 2012, a gantry supporting a spoil hopper, used to load rail wagons with excavated waste at a construction site near Westbourne Park Underground station, collapsed. It tipped sideways, causing the adjacent Network Rail line to be closed.[118][119]

On 7 March 2014, Rene Tkacik, a Slovakian construction worker, was killed by a piece of falling concrete while working in a tunnel.[120] In April 2014, The Observer reported details of a leaked internal report, compiled for the Crossrail contractors by an independent safety consultancy. The report was alleged to have pointed to poor industrial relations arising from safety concerns, and that workers were "too scared to report injuries for fear of being sacked".[121]

Three construction workers died from suspected heart attacks over six months in 2019, but Crossrail announced that, following extensive testing, the air quality at Bond Street station was within acceptable limits.[122]

Much like the Thames Tideway Scheme and the High Speed 2 projects that were under development in London at the same time as Crossrail, the excavation works that took place during the project gave archaeologists a valuable opportunity to explore the earth underneath London's streets that was previously seen as inaccessible. Crossrail undertook what was described as one of the most extensive archeological programmes ever seen in the UK. Over 100 archaeologists have found tens of thousands of items from 40 sites, spanning 55 million years of London's history and prehistory.[123] Many of the items were placed on show at the Museum of London Docklands from February to September 2017. Some of the most notable finds include:[124][125]

• Victims of the Great Plague, a mass grave of 42 skeletons found at Liverpool Street station
• Thirteen skeletons, thought to be of victims of the Black Death in the 14th century, uncovered 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in) under the road that surrounds the gardens in Charterhouse Square, Farringdon in March 2013[126][127]
• Prehistoric knapped flints discovered in North Woolwich
• A Tudor bowling ball found in Stepney Green
• Medieval ice skates found near Liverpool Street station
• Bison and reindeer bones
• Leather shoes dating from the Tudor period
• Roman coins and a Roman medallion found at Liverpool Street which was issued to mark the New Year celebrations in AD 245. This medallion was only the second ever of its kind to be found in Europe.
• Two parts of a woolly mammoth jawbone
• The largest piece of amber ever found in the UK, discovered at Canary Wharf
• A Victorian chamber pot found near Stepney Green
• 13,000 Crosse & Blackwell jars found near Tottenham Court Road from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
• Part of a small barge or fishing vessel from 1223 to 1290 found at Canning Town

With an initial budget of £14.8bn, the total cost has risen to £18.25bn.[128][129] Crossrail continues to be delayed and, as of January 2020, it is expected that the central section will open in summer 2021, with full operation by mid-2022.[130][131]

Before the main tunnels under central London are opened, it is planned to transfer passenger operations on the outer branches of the Crossrail system to TfL for inclusion in the Crossrail concession. This transfer took place over several stages beginning May 2015. During this initial phase of operation, services are being operated by MTR under the TfL Rail brand. Following the practice adopted during the transfer of former Silverlink services to London Overground in 2007, TfL will carry out a deep clean of stations and trains on the future Elizabeth line route, install new ticket machines and barriers, introduce Oyster card and contactless payment, and ensure all stations are staffed. Existing rolling stock has been rebranded with the TfL Rail identity.[40]

TfL Rail/Elizabeth line services

Stage	Map	Originally planned date	Currently planned date	Actual Date	Notes	Status
0		May 2015[135]		31 May 2015[136]	Existing "metro" service between Liverpool Street (main line station) and Shenfield transferred from Abellio Greater Anglia to TfL Rail	Y
1		May 2017[135]		22 June 2017[137]	New Class 345 trains phased into service	Y
2		May 2018[135]		20 May 2018[138]	Existing service between Paddington (main line station) and Heathrow Terminal 4 transferred from Heathrow Connect Existing shuttle service between Heathrow Terminals 2 & 3 and Heathrow Terminal 4 transferred from Heathrow Express, both to TfL Rail	Y
5a[139]		N/A		15 December 2019[140]	Most stopping services between Paddington and Reading transferred from Great Western Railway to TfL Rail, operating up to 4tph The first TfL trains in public service to Reading ran on 25 November 2019 as a soft launch of the service.[141]	Y
2b		Early 2020[135]	Summer 2020[139]		Class 345 trains start running between Paddington and Heathrow	Y
3		Dec 2018[135]	Approx March 2021 to September 2021[139]		Services between Paddington (Elizabeth line station) and Abbey Wood begin; this section and existing TfL Rail routes rebranded as the Elizabeth line, up to 12tph
4		May 2019[135]	By mid-2022[139]		Elizabeth line services between Paddington and Shenfield via Whitechapel and Liverpool Street (Elizabeth line station) begin, up to 24tph in core
5		Dec 2019[135]	By mid-2022[139]		Full route opens, linking Abbey Wood and Shenfield to Heathrow Airport via Paddington Existing services between Reading and Paddington extended to Abbey Wood and Shenfield

Crossrail has predicted annual passenger numbers of over 200 million from its opening in late 2021;[6] this is expected to relieve pressure on London Underground's lines, especially the Central line.[144] Farringdon is expected to become one of the busiest stations in the UK, due to it being the key interchange station with the North–South Thameslink route.[145] Once Crossrail is fully open, TfL expects total annual revenues from the line of nearly £500 million per year in 2022/23 (its first full year of operation) and over £1 billion per year from 2024/25.[6]

Although the Crossrail route passes very close to London City Airport, there will not be a station serving the airport directly. London City Airport has proposed the re-opening of Silvertown railway station, in order to create an interchange between the rail line and the airport.[146] The self-funded £50m station plan is supported 'in principle' by the London Borough of Newham.[147] Provisions for re-opening of the station were made in 2012 by Crossrail.[148] However, it is alleged by the airport that Transport for London is hostile to the idea of a station on the site, a claim disputed by TfL.[149]

In 2018, the airport's chief development officer described the lack of a Crossrail station as a "missed opportunity", but did not rule out a future station for the airport.[150] The CEO stated in an interview that a station is not essential to the airport's success.[151] In May 2019, the chief development officer confirmed discussions are ongoing about a station for the airport as part of the proposed extension to Ebbsfleet.[152]

In the 2003 and 2004 consultations into Crossrail, the South East branch was proposed to go beyond Abbey Wood, running along the North Kent Line to Ebbsfleet, linking up with the (then under construction) Channel Tunnel Rail Link.[154][155] However, prior to the submission of the Crossrail Hybrid Bill to Parliament in 2005, the branch was truncated at Abbey Wood to cut overall project costs.[156] Although dropped from the main scheme, the route was safeguarded by the Department for Transport as far as Gravesend and Hoo Junction, protecting the route from development.[157]

With the Crossrail project nearing completion in 2018, local MPs, council leaders and local businesses began lobbying[158] the government to fund the development of a business case for the extension to Ebbsfleet,[159][160] with the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan including the project into his Mayor's Transport Strategy.[161] The Mayor's Transport Strategy estimated that an extension could assist in delivering 55,000 new homes and 50,000 new jobs planned along the route in Bexley and north Kent.[162] In March 2019, the Government committed £4.8m on exploratory work into the extension as part of the Thames Estuary 2050 Growth Commission.[163][156]

The following stations are on the protected route extension to Gravesend: Belvedere, Erith, Slade Green, Dartford, Stone Crossing, Greenhithe for Bluewater, Swanscombe, Ebbsfleet, Northfleet, and Gravesend.[164]

Network Rail's July 2011 London & South East Route Utilisation Strategy (RUS) recommended that a short railway line could be built to connect the West Coast Main Line (WCML) with the Crossrail route. This would enable train services that currently run between Milton Keynes Central and London Euston to be re-routed via Old Oak Common to serve central London, Shenfield and Abbey Wood. The report argued that this would free up capacity at Euston for the planned High Speed 2, reduce London Underground congestion at Euston, make better use of Crossrail's capacity west of Paddington, and improve access to Heathrow Airport from the north.[165] Under this scheme, all Crossrail trains would continue west of Paddington, instead of some of them terminating there. They would serve Heathrow Airport (10 tph), stations to Maidenhead and Reading (6 tph), and stations to Milton Keynes Central (8 tph).[166]

In August 2014, a statement by transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin indicated that the government was actively evaluating the extension of Crossrail as far as Tring, with potential Crossrail stops at Wembley Central, Harrow & Wealdstone, Bushey, Watford Junction, Kings Langley, Apsley, Hemel Hempstead and Berkhamsted. The extension would relieve some pressure from London Underground and London Euston station while also increasing connectivity. Conditions to the extension were that any extra services should not affect the planned service pattern for confirmed routes, as well as affordability.[167][168] This proposal was shelved in August 2016 due to "poor overall value for money to the taxpayer".[169]

As part of the Heathrow Southern Railway scheme proposed in 2017, the western extent of the Crossrail route could be extended beyond Heathrow Airport to terminate at Staines. This extension would form part of a wider scheme to create new rail links in west London and Surrey serving Heathrow, and would require the construction of an extra platform at Staines station. This proposal has not been approved or funded.[170]

Stobart Aviation, the company that operates Southend Airport in Essex, has proposed that Crossrail should be extended beyond Shenfield along the Shenfield–Southend line to serve Southend Airport and Southend Victoria. The company has suggested that a direct Heathrow-Southend link could alleviate capacity problems at Heathrow.[171] The extension proposal has been supported by Southend-on-Sea Borough Council.[172]

• Crossrail 2 – second proposed Crossrail route, running north east to south west.
• Picc-Vic tunnel – a similar project in Manchester; never built.
• Thameslink Programme – upgrading of existing north–south line through Central London, majority completed in 2019.[179]

• Oslo Tunnel – a similar project in Oslo, Norway; opened in 1980
• Réseau Express Régional (RER) – the similar cross-city rail network in Paris; opened in 1977

• Center City Commuter Connection – a similar project in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; opened in 1984
• North–South Rail Link – a similar proposed project in Boston, Massachusetts;

• Metro Tunnel – a similar project in Melbourne, Australia; construction started in 2018
• Melbourne Metro 2 – a follow up project to Metro Tunnel; not yet started.
• Sydney Metro - a similar project in Sydney, Australia, with multiple stages and projects; first phase opened in 2019.

• "London & South East RUS (final)". Network Rail. 28 July 2011. p. 9. Archived from the original on 28 November 2017. Retrieved 28 November 2017.
• "Crossrail Act 2008". National Archives. Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.
  • "Crossrail Bill supporting documents". Archived from the original on 13 February 2009.
• "Government backs £10bn Crossrail". BBC News. 20 June 2004.
• Geoghegan, Tom (20 June 2004). "Will Crossrail beat the Tube?". BBC News.
• "Crossrail link 'to get go-ahead'". BBC News. 13 February 2005.
• "First Crossrail bill for Commons". BBC News. 22 February 2005.
• "Election holds up Crossrail bill". BBC News. 7 April 2005.
• "Crossrail plan in Queen's Speech". BBC News. 17 May 2005.
• "Crossrail's giant tunnelling machines unveiled". BBC News. 2 January 2012.
• "Crossrail: A rare look deep under London" (video). BBC News. 25 January 2013. Retrieved 26 January 2013.