Heathrow to Canary Wharf in 38 minutes by autumn 2022, predicts Crossrail boss

Elizabeth Line project is running years behind schedule and is way over budget

On track: the view from the cab of a test train running on London’s much-delayed Crossrail project (Crossrail)

London’s botched Crossrail project may finally deliver some good news for commuters and airline passengers.

The section from Britain’s busiest airport via the West End, the City and Canary Wharf to Abbey Wood in southeast London could be running by autumn 2022, Crossrail’s chief executive has said.

Mark Wild told MPs on the Public Accounts Committee: “Let’s say we open the central section in February [2022].

“It’s possible in autumn 2022 to open an end-to-end railway that would have things like a journey from Heathrow straight through to Canary Wharf.”

Allowing through trains from the western section would bring an end-to-end benefit of 90 to 95 per cent, he said. It requires the “ingenious” solution of decoupling GWR and Greater Anglia suburban services from the main Network Rail timetable.

“You could get on a train from Heathrow and be in Canary Wharf in 38 minutes,” he said.

The new link will be known as the Elizabeth Line.

Journeys from Heathrow Terminals 2 and 3 would take around 26 minutes to Tottenham Court Road and 31 minutes to Liverpool Street station, according to an analysis of Crossrail figures. To and from Heathrow Terminal 5, trips would take five minutes longer.

Passengers could travel between these stations and Britain’s busiest airport in around half the current times using the existing Underground – which also requires a change of Tube trains.

The over-budget and much-delayed line, connecting Heathrow airport and Reading to the west of the capital with Shenfield and Abbey Wood to the east, was originally planned to open in December 2018, .

In July of that year, taxpayers and the travelling public were assured that within five months it would be possible to travel from Paddington to Canary Wharf in 15 minutes.

In fact, the most optimistic estimate for the central section beneath London is February 2022, around 40 months late.

The full project will not be complete until May 2023. In the meantime, the cost has risen from the original £14.8bn price tag to more than £20bn – with hundreds of millions of pounds in further losses arising from lost ticket revenue.

An earlier opening of the Heathrow service could stem some of the losses.

Initially trains through the central section will run every five minutes in each direction, though the frequency will double when the full services is operating.

Crossrail is being investigated by the committee in a bid to find out “the reasons for further delays and cost increases”.

Andy Byford, commissioner of Transport for London (TfL), blamed a confused management structure for earlier failings.

“The buck does stop with me. It needed a single point of ownership, it needed one guiding mind,” he told MPs.

“There could be no greater symbol of London’s resurgence and emergence from Covid than the opening of the Elizabeth Line.

“No further delays, no further cost runs, let’s get it done.”

The project will add 10 per cent to London’s rail capacity.