LONDON’S new Elizabeth Line – named after Her Majesty the Queen in her Platinum Jubilee year and previously known during planning and construction as Crossrail – has opened to the public today (Tuesday, May 24), providing significant journey-time savings for Great Western Railway customers such as those arriving in the capital from Cornwall and Devon.

Passengers are now able to travel from the terminus of many of GWR services from the West Country at London Paddington to the London Docklands hub of Canary Wharf in just 17 minutes – half the time the journey took previously.

For commuters it also means the capital’s central business hub will now be within an hour’s reach from Reading and under 90 minutes from Oxford and Swindon.

The Queen herself, accompanied by Prince Edward, attended an official launch event for the new underground mainline last week. As well as meeting some of the construction team she was presented with an oystercard and was shown how to use it in one of the new hi-tech ticket machines.

GWR Managing Director Mark Hopwood described the opening of the line as a game-changer for passengers travelling into the heart of London.

He said: “The Elizabeth line will be completely transformational for Great Western Railway customers, improving connectivity and reducing overall journey times from Paddington into other key points in the city.

“It’s a really exciting step forward for the whole industry but it will bring particular benefits to Great Western Railway. We know that 81 per cent of our customers who travel into Paddington then take an onward journey elsewhere in London.

“If you’re travelling from Reading or Oxford, Paddington becomes a much more attractive option as you’re able to reach the heart of the city in half the time it would have taken previously.

“We expect these new services to help make travel on GWR services into the capital even more compelling, attracting new customers across our network and boosting demand as we work hard to attract customers back to the railway.”

When the line opens tomorrow, passengers will be able to travel from Paddington to Tottenham Court Road in just five minutes, compared to 14 minutes previously; Liverpool Street in 11 minutes (25 minutes previously); and Abbey Wood in south-east London in 29 minutes, compared to 61 minutes previously.

The line will initially operate as three separate railways, in the east, in the west and through central London.

Services will start with 12 trains an hour (a train every five minutes) between Paddington and Abbey Wood from 6.30am-11pm, Monday to Saturday. Work will continue in engineering hours and on Sundays to allow a series of testing and software updates.

Customers travelling between Reading or Heathrow into London will initially need to change at Paddington for services into the central section of the route, and customers from Shenfield into London will initially need to change at Liverpool Street.

Services from Reading, Heathrow and Shenfield will connect with the central tunnels in the autumn when frequencies will also be increased to 22 trains per hour in the peak between Paddington and Whitechapel.

By May of 2023 the separate sections of Elizabeth line will become fully connected and services will run to the final timetable. There will be up to 24 trains per hour between Paddington and Whitechapel during the peak when the railway is fully open.

For a GWR video showing TV presenter and railway historian Tim Dunn, of popular programmes The Architecture That Built The Railways and Secrets of the London Underground, trying out the new line and the older London Underground alternative routes see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmL-HdVIp3o