Elizabeth line to serve Heathrow’s Terminal 5 as part of new rail plan

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The Elizabeth line will now call at Heathrow Terminal 5 under a new rail service plan agreed by the airport, Transport for London (TfL) and the Department for Transport (DfT).

Under the new plan, at least 22 trains an hour will run between London and Heathrow from 2019 – four more services than operate today.

Six of those will be Elizabeth line services – four serving terminals two, three and four and two serving terminals two, three and five.

The announcement also said that from May 2018 ticket reader barriers will be installed in Heathrow, allowing passengers to use Oyster cards and contactless payment.

From 2019, Elizabeth line train services will sit alongside four Heathrow Express services an hour and 12 Piccadilly line trains.

The launch of the Elizabeth line will, however, signal the end of Heathrow Connect – a service jointly operated between Heathrow Express and Great Western Railway.

One of the key benefits of the Elizabeth line is that it will provide a direct train service between Canary Wharf and Heathrow, which will have a journey time of 39 minutes.

Heathrow said a joint feasibility study is currently being carried out to look into the possibility of running two additional Elizabeth line services per hour to Terminal 5. This would take the total number of hourly Elizabeth line services to the airport to eight.

Yesterday’s announcement follows a legal dispute over track access charges at Heathrow.

In May, the High Court sided with an ORR decision not to allow Heathrow Airport to impose access charges on Elizabeth line services that included historical charges for building the spur connecting Heathrow with the Great Western main line.

Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye said: “This agreement is a big step forward. Together Heathrow, TfL and the DfT are working together to boost rail connections to the UK’s hub, giving our passengers more choices to travel sustainably between Heathrow and London.”

Mike Brown, London’s Transport Commissioner, added: “We have been working with Heathrow on how we can deliver the best services for customers to and from the airport. It is great news that we can now confirm that the Elizabeth line will serve all the terminals.”


Read more: First Elizabeth line train enters passenger service


 

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