The Elizabeth Line is set to enhance its Saturday service by offering trains every three minutes. Starting from December 20th, 2023, Transport for London (TfL) will increase the frequency of trains running through the core section of the network. Currently, the service provides 16 trains per hour on Saturdays, which will rise to 20 trains per hour during the peak hours.
New Saturday Service Schedule
The boosted service will operate between approximately 11 AM and 8 PM every Saturday. Specifically, there will be:
- Two additional trains per hour from Abbey Wood to Paddington.
- Two additional trains per hour from Gidea Park to Paddington.
Outside of these hours, the existing timetable remains unchanged, allowing passengers to continue enjoying a steady service. The introduction of these extra trains will alter the departure frequency: Gidea Park will see a reduction in wait times from about eight minutes to six minutes, while the Abbey Wood branch will see a similar decrease from seven minutes to six minutes.
Example Departure Times
Here are some example departure times for trains from Gidea Park and Abbey Wood to Paddington on Saturdays:
| Time | Gideas Park Departs | Abbey Wood Departs |
|---|---|---|
| 11:00 | 11:01 | 11:00 |
| 11:05 | 11:07 | 11:06 |
| 11:10 | 11:14 | 11:12 |
| 11:15 | 11:22 | 11:18 |
| 11:20 | 11:29 | 11:24 |
| 11:30 | 11:37 | 11:30 |
| 11:40 | 11:44 | 11:36 |
| 11:45 | 11:52 | 11:42 |
Elizabeth Line Usage and Popularity
Since its launch in 2022, the Elizabeth Line has rapidly become the UK’s most popular railway service. Currently, it facilitates an impressive average of 800,000 journeys daily. On September 11th, the service even surpassed one million passenger journeys in a single day for the first time.
Trish Ashton, Director of Rail at TfL, indicated that the increased frequency will significantly benefit customers traveling from eastern branches to central London. She urged passengers to utilize the TfL Go app or visit TfL.gov.uk for journey planning.
