Integrating the signaling systems between the existing lines and the new bits were one of the big challenges in building it.
What’s that long circular tunnel surrounding the whole of London?
Part of the stretch between Custom House and Woolwich is reused and not new.
Doesn’t stop the Glizzie line from being my fave
And looks like finally crossrail 2 will start being built in the not too distant future
Most of it wasn’t “built”; the pre-existing lines have been there for well over a century. It ran as TfL Rail since 2015 and before that was operated by GWR/FGW and Greater Anglia.
Always surprises me when people complain about something east of Whitechapel or west of Paddington saying “but it’s a brand new line” when most of it isn’t. There were some route upgrades to accommodate the Crossrail project though.
I had a good old argument online with some train engineers in a similar fashion about the Overground in South London. A lot of this was utilisation of existing lines and capacity. To the extent that where I live we actually lost a number of services.
I get that there was great engineering challenges, new bridges etc. But they still couldn’t get past that services were lost, and existing capacity was utilised in addition to the new bits.
It’s not the size but what you do with it. This was a major challenge to cross London.
No crap, everyone treats it as the innovation of the century though… To be fair it helped cut down travel times by a lot
I live near one of the original lines/station and was sick to death of the advertising blurb telling me I could get to London in 25 minutes on the Liz. I’ve always been able to get to London in 25 minutes! Sometimes I could get there faster on a scheduled semi-fast train.
That said, I do love the Liz even though there were years of disrupted or no weekend trains during the build.
So??? Were they joined up through London???
If only plumstead was included 😮💨
That’s why they called it ‘Crossrail’
Were the existing stations modernised, upgraded with step-free access etc?
And still half of the trains only go to Paddington.
No shit sherlock
That’s the genius, trains that can rocket through the centre and not have to arse around at terminals turning around with all the passengers having to get on the same tube train, are massively more effective.
Thameslink is the same, and it’s one of the things that makes Crossrail 2 harder, there is s solid candidate in the GA line to Stansted in the north, but not such a winner in the SW where it’s needed.
tunnelling the whole way would have been crazy expensive, buying new land nuts. it’s turned some low-value lines into massive drivers of transport with HUGE capacity upgrades.
Crossrail 2 is an even higher percentage on existing lines I think. Makes the £35bn or so hard to swallow.
Well, yeah. The tricky bit was always going to be getting them through the middle.
The 1990s plan for Crossrail was actually rather different – no Abbey Wood branch. Instead the Chiltern route out of Marylebone would be electrified and services would run to Aylesbury and Chesham.
It was submitted as a private members bill in 1991, but failed to get out of committee in 1994, for reasons that may have been due to cost-benefit concerns at the tail end of a recession:
Love the Lizzie line but do find it funny when it’s lauded as some achievement of infrastructure when it’s just like 80% already built (yes I know they built new stations and signalling I’m just being facetious)
Ok, but even just the Whitechapel to Paddington bit is a godsend as far as I’m concerned. I live in SE and often have to get to Oxford and it’s genuinely transformative.
21 comments
Integrating the signaling systems between the existing lines and the new bits were one of the big challenges in building it.
What’s that long circular tunnel surrounding the whole of London?
Part of the stretch between Custom House and Woolwich is reused and not new.
Doesn’t stop the Glizzie line from being my fave
And looks like finally crossrail 2 will start being built in the not too distant future
Most of it wasn’t “built”; the pre-existing lines have been there for well over a century. It ran as TfL Rail since 2015 and before that was operated by GWR/FGW and Greater Anglia.
Always surprises me when people complain about something east of Whitechapel or west of Paddington saying “but it’s a brand new line” when most of it isn’t. There were some route upgrades to accommodate the Crossrail project though.
I had a good old argument online with some train engineers in a similar fashion about the Overground in South London. A lot of this was utilisation of existing lines and capacity. To the extent that where I live we actually lost a number of services.
I get that there was great engineering challenges, new bridges etc. But they still couldn’t get past that services were lost, and existing capacity was utilised in addition to the new bits.
It’s not the size but what you do with it. This was a major challenge to cross London.
No crap, everyone treats it as the innovation of the century though… To be fair it helped cut down travel times by a lot
I live near one of the original lines/station and was sick to death of the advertising blurb telling me I could get to London in 25 minutes on the Liz. I’ve always been able to get to London in 25 minutes! Sometimes I could get there faster on a scheduled semi-fast train.
That said, I do love the Liz even though there were years of disrupted or no weekend trains during the build.
So??? Were they joined up through London???
If only plumstead was included 😮💨
That’s why they called it ‘Crossrail’
Were the existing stations modernised, upgraded with step-free access etc?
And still half of the trains only go to Paddington.
No shit sherlock
That’s the genius, trains that can rocket through the centre and not have to arse around at terminals turning around with all the passengers having to get on the same tube train, are massively more effective.
Thameslink is the same, and it’s one of the things that makes Crossrail 2 harder, there is s solid candidate in the GA line to Stansted in the north, but not such a winner in the SW where it’s needed.
tunnelling the whole way would have been crazy expensive, buying new land nuts. it’s turned some low-value lines into massive drivers of transport with HUGE capacity upgrades.
Crossrail 2 is an even higher percentage on existing lines I think. Makes the £35bn or so hard to swallow.
Well, yeah. The tricky bit was always going to be getting them through the middle.
The 1990s plan for Crossrail was actually rather different – no Abbey Wood branch. Instead the Chiltern route out of Marylebone would be electrified and services would run to Aylesbury and Chesham.
[https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/collections-online/maps/item/1994-1184](https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/collections-online/maps/item/1994-1184)
I believe the Heathrow bit was dropped.
It was submitted as a private members bill in 1991, but failed to get out of committee in 1994, for reasons that may have been due to cost-benefit concerns at the tail end of a recession:
[https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/canals-spies-politics-the-crossrails-that-werent-built-23449/](https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/canals-spies-politics-the-crossrails-that-werent-built-23449/)
Love the Lizzie line but do find it funny when it’s lauded as some achievement of infrastructure when it’s just like 80% already built (yes I know they built new stations and signalling I’m just being facetious)
Ok, but even just the Whitechapel to Paddington bit is a godsend as far as I’m concerned. I live in SE and often have to get to Oxford and it’s genuinely transformative.
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