Hey guys welcome back to Demystified!

For our second episode we will be looking at the headline grabbing London Megaproject

Crossrail, consider following us on social media and enjoy the video!

[Intro]

The history of Crossrail or the Elizabeth Line as it's now known, in my eyes begins

in mid 20th century Paris, now stick with me.

Paris is famous for its incredibly dense Metro network with small trains and incredibly short

distances between stations, however as one might imagine this became quite a hindrance

as the network grew in both passenger numbers and size.

Not only did the small trains tend to get slammed by incredibly high passenger loads

but, the short distances between stations meant going more than a short distance ended

up taking ages.

In addition, with growing suburbs and increasing numbers of commuters coming into Paris on

regional rail lines and further congesting the Metro, a solution was needed.

And so from this came the iconic RER (which yes is where GO RER gets its name if like

me you are from Toronto). RER as a project was the enhancement and connection of existing

commuter rail lines which previously terminated on the edges of Paris via brand new tunnels

through the core of the city.

These new tunnels featured only a few large widely spaced stations, allowing suburban

commuters to quickly get deep into the heart of the city, while providing significant capacity

with incredibly large trains and advanced signalling bringing the capacity needed for

both suburban commuters and urban dwellers to utilize the new express services.

The RER has been immensely successful for Paris becoming a long haul network in its

own right separate from the Paris Metro with 5 lines criss crossing the French Capital

with service to the incredibly important CDG airport and numerous branches.

In fact, some of the RER lines are among the most used urban transit lines in the world

with trains arriving with 10 car bilevel trains arriving at stations at frequencies usually

reserved for only the most frequent subways in North America.

Now at this point you're probably asking, why oh why Reece have you spent this much

time in a London video talking about Paris of all places? Well here's the thing, London

and Paris are only about 300 kilometers apart, far closer than say Montreal and Toronto.

So it isn't much of a stretch to think that in the decades since RER opened in Paris,

innumerable Londoners have visited Paris and rode the RER which connects to both Gate du

Nord and CDG Airport, two likely locations where Britons have experienced all the RER's

glory upon arrival in France.

With all this in mind now consider Crossrail, a new branched high capacity express urban

rail line designed to link two important national rail lines the Great Western Main Line and

the Great Eastern Main Line via a central tunnel with utilizes advanced signalling systems,

while also relieving an overburdened convention Metro system, and connecting to key transport

hubs like London Heathrow Airport and and Paddington Station. The inspiration from RER

(including the plans already for a second line) are plain to see and give us a good

idea how the idea for Crossrail came about.

As mentioned Crossrail will act as a new express Urban Rail Line connecting key destinations

across London at higher speeds and wider station spacings than what is provided by the London

Underground or as it's more commonly called the "Tube". The service when complete will

operate similar to existing tube lines with regular all stops service at Metro level frequencies.

The Line will extend from Reading and Heathrow Airport in the West through new twin bored

tunnels through Central London, on to two Eastern branches, one to Shenfield to the

Northeast and another to Abbey Wood to the Southeast, passing through Canary Wharf on the way.

Crossrail is already operating in pieces with service along the Eastern leg from Shenfield

to Liverpool Street operating while entering the latter station via the surface rather

than via the currently incomplete central tunnels.

Service is also operating on the leg to Heathrow taking over the previous local Heathrow Connect

Service and Reading in the West.

Hence the main portion of the project which remains not ready for service (and which has

faced delay) is that RER special sauce of the central tunnel and advanced signalling.

Now of course I wouldn't have included the Parisian preamble if the similarities were

limited to the route. All of the stations now adopted as part of Crossrail are seeing

major overhauls though falling short of being 100% accessible, however no expense was spared

on the new central stations of which there are several feature all the latest amenities

like Platform screen doors and much like this on RER are massive to accommodate the 200+

meter trains.

Crossrail much like RER also opts for full flat heavy rail trains electrified at mainline

standards of 25 kV with overhead catenary and capable of higher top speeds than regular

Metro trains, while this is simply a byproduct of the repurposing of previous mainline railways

for frequent Metro like service, there is something very cool about the new nine car

class 345 trains operating deep under London with platform screen doors and all.

With all this in mind it seems London's Crossrail project is much like the Paris RER and hence

is the evolution of Metro services for cities who already have comprehensive short haul

Metro networks. With new larger and faster trains and all the modern amenities which

cannot be easily retrofitted into existing lines.

So with that thanks for watching the second episode of Demystified, consider supporting

the channel on Patreon or following us on Social Media and as always see you again soon!

[Music]