Woolwich Crossrail station officially handed over to Transport for London

Woolwich station on the Elizabeth line has officially been handed over to TfL today.

Contractors signed over the station as testing continues before services start at the beginning of 2022 (hopefully).

The handover meets a target expected for months. Back in May Crossrail stated – covered on a post here – that handover of Woolwich station was due within 12 weeks.

Other stations so far handed over include Custom House, Farringdon, and Tottenham Court Road.

Station history

Woolwich station has a somewhat tortured history. There was originally never supposed to be a station, which seems crazy now and seemed crazy then.

It took a lot of fight and Government refused to fund, eventually agreeing that local people would need to fund half the cost via developer levies. Berkeley Homes also gain permission to build towers above in return for assisting.

A result of this convoluted funding was it wasn’t the fully specced station it could have been with an eastern entrance for passegers despite thousands of homes being built just to the east.

Towers are due directly above the eastern end of the station:

1,750 homes are also to be built near Thamesmead:

Abbey Wood

It’s somewhat surprising Abbey Wood hasn’t yet obtained TfL control as all building work has apparently long completed, and TfL now staff the station – and have done for two years.

It also means TfL fares now exist from Abbey Wood to certain stations on the TfL network that Crossrail will serve, such as Farringdon (accessible directly via Thameslink) and Stratford.

As TfL fares are cheaper than Southeastern, this makes journeys from Plumstead more expensive as the Southeastern / National Rail fare scale is used.

Testing is now up to eight trains per hour in each direction, with imminent increases towards full service levels expected.