Crossrail route map: How the Elizabeth line will connect London to Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Essex

Mark Chandler30 May 2022

This is the new route map for Crossrail, London’s newest rail line.

The link, named the Elizabeth line in honour of the Queen, will start running through central London, eventually connecting the city to parts of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire to Essex.

From Reading in the west, the line passes through Ealing Broadway, Tottenham Court Road and Liverpool Street before travelling on through Essex - as our close-up images of the line's stations below show.

Two further spurs connect commuters with Heathrow Airport and, towards the city’s east, Canary Wharf and Abbey Wood.

The £20 billion project opened to the public on May 24, after months of tests involving thousands of role-playing volunteers.

Once fully operational, 24 new 656ft-long trains with nine walk-through air-conditioned carriages will run on the line.

TfL

Transport chiefs promise journey times from central London to Heathrow will be 20 minutes faster than before, while key employment districts outside the capital will be just a 45-minute train ride away.

Transport for London

The high-speed train and Tube link will connect the outer western edges of the capital to the outer east.

Transport for London

Boris Johnson said Crossrail would be a “transformative investment not just for London but for the whole country”.

“I’ve got absolutely no embarrassment as a former Mayor of London about supporting great projects in London, and we’ve got to do,” he said.

“We’ve completed Crossrail but frankly, but there is more that we should be doing. We should look at projects such as the Bakerloo Line Extension. But I think the real thing for us now is to think about Crossrail 2, and with the old Hackney Chelsea line, Chelsea, that is that is going to be transformative.

“Again, all of the problems of commuters coming into Waterloo, getting up to North London, you can fix that with another Crossrail.”

The Elizabeth line will initially operate in three sections - the western section between Reading, Heathrow and Paddington, the central section between Paddington and Abbey Wood, and the eastern section between Liverpool Street and Shenfield.

The full line will eventually enable passengers to travel from Reading and Heathrow through central London to Shenfield or Abbey Wood without needing to change trains. The final version of the timetable across the entire line is expected to be in place by May 2023.

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