Crossrail sees final safety sign off before opening
Crossrail have received final certification to begin running services on 24 May.
The Office of Road and Rail have today announced certification of all stations with the exception of Bond Street which is set to open later this year.
Bond Street has been certified to be used for evacuation until opening.
Services will begin running in less than two weeks between Abbey Wood and Paddington with service frequencies of trains every five minutes.
There will be no early morning, late night or Sunday services initially on the Elizabeth Line as work continues on various remaining issues such as software updates and reliability.
Upon opening, Abbey Wood will be around 10 minutes from Canary Wharf and 18 from Liverpool Street.
The line has spurred various housing developments around stations including around 1,000 homes within walking distance of Abbey Wood.
They are either set to complete in the near term or shortly commence. That includes 525 in south Thamesmead, over 200 at towers a minutes walk from the station and nearly 300 set to start at Eynsham Drive where an on-site car wash has just closed.
There are also thousands of homes underway or set to start in Woolwich including four towers currently under construction beside the Thames.
Just last week plans were submitted for over 250 homes in Woolwich – covered here – and this week plans were uploaded on timescales regarding the demolition of college buildings in Plumstead within walking distance of Woolwich station.
That project is set to kick off next month and will see 294 homes alongside new college facilities.
Does anyone know why it’s a 6.30 start? Not much good for the early workers. It still offers no alternative to the frequently delayed/cancelled early Southeastern services.
Overnight works for snagging work
This is to enable any teething problems to be sorted, giving them time outside of the operating hours, later in the year when the 3 lines merge into 1, it will be nearly a 24 hour railway
I am beyond excited – door to door to my office in 43 minutes – game changer and will mean so much more time with my toddler in the evening. My current commute is an hour 20 into central London! But I do worry that we are going to be rapidly priced out of the area. Have already seen some horrendous looking flats on rightmove for upwards of 1700 a month.
Absolutely Carmen the price of property to buy or rent is out of the reach of most local people who were born and bred n the Borough. Forcing them to move out of the area to fund cheaper properties. So unfair.