Hey guys welcome back to Demystified!
For our second episode we will be looking
at the headline grabbing London Megaproject
Crossrail, consider following us on social
media and enjoy the video!
[Intro]
The history of Crossrail or the Elizabeth
Line as it's now known, in my eyes begins
in mid 20th century Paris, now stick with
me.
Paris is famous for its incredibly dense Metro
network with small trains and incredibly short
distances between stations, however as one
might imagine this became quite a hindrance
as the network grew in both passenger numbers
and size.
Not only did the small trains tend to get
slammed by incredibly high passenger loads
but, the short distances between stations
meant going more than a short distance ended
up taking ages.
In addition, with growing suburbs and increasing
numbers of commuters coming into Paris on
regional rail lines and further congesting
the Metro, a solution was needed.
And so from this came the iconic RER (which
yes is where GO RER gets its name if like
me you are from Toronto). RER as a project
was the enhancement and connection of existing
commuter rail lines which previously terminated
on the edges of Paris via brand new tunnels
through the core of the city.
These new tunnels featured only a few large
widely spaced stations, allowing suburban
commuters to quickly get deep into the heart
of the city, while providing significant capacity
with incredibly large trains and advanced
signalling bringing the capacity needed for
both suburban commuters and urban dwellers
to utilize the new express services.
The RER has been immensely successful for
Paris becoming a long haul network in its
own right separate from the Paris Metro with
5 lines criss crossing the French Capital
with service to the incredibly important CDG
airport and numerous branches.
In fact, some of the RER lines are among the
most used urban transit lines in the world
with trains arriving with 10 car bilevel trains
arriving at stations at frequencies usually
reserved for only the most frequent subways
in North America.
Now at this point you're probably asking,
why oh why Reece have you spent this much
time in a London video talking about Paris
of all places? Well here's the thing, London
and Paris are only about 300 kilometers apart,
far closer than say Montreal and Toronto.
So it isn't much of a stretch to think that
in the decades since RER opened in Paris,
innumerable Londoners have visited Paris and
rode the RER which connects to both Gate du
Nord and CDG Airport, two likely locations
where Britons have experienced all the RER's
glory upon arrival in France.
With all this in mind now consider Crossrail,
a new branched high capacity express urban
rail line designed to link two important national
rail lines the Great Western Main Line and
the Great Eastern Main Line via a central
tunnel with utilizes advanced signalling systems,
while also relieving an overburdened convention
Metro system, and connecting to key transport
hubs like London Heathrow Airport and and
Paddington Station. The inspiration from RER
(including the plans already for a second
line) are plain to see and give us a good
idea how the idea for Crossrail came about.
As mentioned Crossrail will act as a new express
Urban Rail Line connecting key destinations
across London at higher speeds and wider station
spacings than what is provided by the London
Underground or as it's more commonly called
the "Tube". The service when complete will
operate similar to existing tube lines with
regular all stops service at Metro level frequencies.
The Line will extend from Reading and Heathrow
Airport in the West through new twin bored
tunnels through Central London, on to two
Eastern branches, one to Shenfield to the
Northeast and another to Abbey Wood to the
Southeast, passing through Canary Wharf on the way.
Crossrail is already operating in pieces with
service along the Eastern leg from Shenfield
to Liverpool Street operating while entering
the latter station via the surface rather
than via the currently incomplete central
tunnels.
Service is also operating on the leg to Heathrow
taking over the previous local Heathrow Connect
Service and Reading in the West.
Hence the main portion of the project which
remains not ready for service (and which has
faced delay) is that RER special sauce of
the central tunnel and advanced signalling.
Now of course I wouldn't have included the
Parisian preamble if the similarities were
limited to the route. All of the stations
now adopted as part of Crossrail are seeing
major overhauls though falling short of being
100% accessible, however no expense was spared
on the new central stations of which there
are several feature all the latest amenities
like Platform screen doors and much like this
on RER are massive to accommodate the 200+
meter trains.
Crossrail much like RER also opts for full
flat heavy rail trains electrified at mainline
standards of 25 kV with overhead catenary
and capable of higher top speeds than regular
Metro trains, while this is simply a byproduct
of the repurposing of previous mainline railways
for frequent Metro like service, there is
something very cool about the new nine car
class 345 trains operating deep under London
with platform screen doors and all.
With all this in mind it seems London's Crossrail
project is much like the Paris RER and hence
is the evolution of Metro services for cities
who already have comprehensive short haul
Metro networks. With new larger and faster
trains and all the modern amenities which
cannot be easily retrofitted into existing
lines.
So with that thanks for watching the second
episode of Demystified, consider supporting
the channel on Patreon or following us on
Social Media and as always see you again soon!
[Music]
