People travelling to London on the train will notice a "significant" reduction in their journey time, thanks to the new Elizabeth Line. The £18.9 billion new railway line has finally opened following the completion of the delayed Crossrail project.
Great Western Railway (GWR) said the new line will make it much quicker for customers from stations including Cardiff and Swansea who are heading into central London. It comes as visitors from Wales and the rest of the UK are expected to descend on the English capital for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
The GWR bosses said that visitors from South Wales will also benefit from the improved capacity and better connections the new line brings to the London Underground. They claim it has halved the time it takes to get to Canary Wharf from London's Paddington Station to just 17 minutes.
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Mark Hopwood, GWR's managing director, described the opening of the line as a "game-changer" for passengers travelling into the heart of London. "The Elizabeth line is transformational for Great Western Railway customers, improving connectivity and reducing overall journey times from Paddington into other key points in the city," he said.
"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."
Mr Hopwood said that the line made Paddington a "much more attractive option" for GWR customers from Wales and other stations along the mainline to London. "You're now able to reach the heart of the city in half the time it would have taken previously," he said.
“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." Railway historian and TV presenter Tim Dunn was invited to race against himself using both the Elizabeth Line and traditional underground routes to prove the point in a YouTube video.
With the Elizabeth Line now open, passengers are told they will be able to travel from Paddington to Tottenham Court Road "in just five minutes", compared to the 14 minutes it used to take. They can also now get to Liverpool Street Station in 11 minutes, as opposed to the 25 minutes it took previously.
The line will initially operate as three separate railways, in the east, west and through central London. Services will start with 12 trains an hour - a train every 5 minutes between Paddington and Abbey Wood stations - from 6.30am to 11pm, from Monday through to Saturday. Work is continuing on testing work and software updates before Sunday services will be introduced.
A total of 24 trains per hour will operate at peak hours on the Elizabeth Line from Paddington into central London when all the central tunnels are connected next year. The work is expected to be completed by next May when a final timetable will be produced.
