TFL Rail: a review

After years of delays and setbacks, the Elizabeth Line is now in full operation. This blog post will discuss my experience of using TFL Rail before it's rebranding to the Elizabeth Line in May 2022.

The TFL Rail Logo, under the old operator seen on a Class 315.

TFL Rail

A TFL Rail Class 315 is seen at Goodmayes station on a service towards Shenfield.
Taken during: April 2021

After many years (even before the 2000s) of many proposals being submitted and rejected, in 2007, construction for the Crossrail Project had begun. While the construction was in progress, TFL Rail began operation in 2015, taking over the eastern section of the Liverpool Street to Shenfield route - previously operated by Abellio Greater Anglia. The existing Class 315s previously with Greater Anglia stayed with the route, the trains being refurbished internally and externally for the TFL Rail brand.  

The Bombardier Class 345 Aventra made it's debut on the route in June 2017. TFL Rail took over the following sections on the western part of the route between 2018 and 2019;

London Paddington to Hayes and Harlington (May 2018)

previously run by Great Western Railway.

London Paddington to Heathrow Terminal 4 (May 2018)

previously run by Heathrow Connect.

London Paddington to Reading (December 2019)

previously run by Great Western Railway.

A TFL Rail Class 345 is seen at Goodmayes station on a service towards Gidea Park.
Taken during: June 2018

Class 345s were also introduced onto the routes above upon takeover however, there were issues with the signalling in the Heathrow section as it was outdated for the Class 345s to pass through at the time, so the Class 360s were retained for use along this section. They could only last so long though, as the Class 345s began operation on the Heathrow service in July 2020 - the Class 360s were taken out of service by September 2020. 

A TFL Rail Class 360 is seen approaching West Ealing station on service towards London Paddington.
These trains previously worked the Heathrow Connect service between; Paddington and Heathrow Airport.
Photo taken by: R~P~M

By now, both sections of the TFL Rail routes were largely allocated Class 345s, apart from the Class 315s which still managed to hang on. It's now 2021 and at last something related to the Crossrail project was mentioned, with the first half of the project scheduled to open in the "first half of 2022". All of the stations that were being served by the Elizabeth Line on the Great Western Main Line and Great Eastern Main Line, had to receive major refurbishment, at first the progress was quite slow, however as time went on purple roundels were placed and platforms at stations were extended in order to accommodate the Class 345 trains which entered into service as 7-cars, though later being expanded to 9-cars. 

The platforms at Goodmayes was one of many stations on the route to be expanded, as part the Crossrail Project. 

The destination boards on display at Goodmayes. 

Poster at Stratford station mentioning about Class 345s being upgraded from 7 to 9 carriages, along with information mentioning about the short platforms at certain stations.

TFL Rail was then rebranded to the Elizabeth Line on the Tuesday 24th of May 2022, after 7 years of operation. The operation over the past 7 years, to be honest, well.... the service had it's ups and downs but when I travelled with the operator on most days it has been fine, of course though I did have some bad days where the line was completely messed up. Has it improved under the Elizabeth Line? I guess you have to stick around and find out in the next blog post.

Thanks for reading and happy riding!