Crossrail First Train Paddington

[calcium]

The first ever public crossrail train to leave Paddington into the underground section will be on the 24th of May 6:33am.

How busy can I expect this to be and will there be some sort of celebration thing going on at the time? and when will the actual station gates open.. I want to be one of the first to buy an Elizabeth line oyster card from there... Also how hot would it be, I'm debating whether to wear a purple train hoodie or a purple train t shirt (no sleeves)

 

[JonathanH]

How busy can I expect this to be

Who knows? There was a big crowd at Battersea Power Station for its opening. You might imagine the same people are attracted to one end of the Elizabeth Line or the other for its opening.

Paddington Station itself sees its first train at 0442 and a round trip to Heathrow is possible before the first tunnel train runs. You might imagine the gates to the Elizabeth Line platforms not to open until shortly before the 0630 train though.

I reckon it is debatable as to whether Paddington or Abbey Wood is more attractive to potential travellers and which will get the bigger first train crowd.

will there be some sort of celebration thing going on at the time?

Maybe, but probably more so later in the day at a more reasonable time.

Also how hot would it be

Look at the weather forecast on a suitable website.

 

[Kite159]

I suspect it will be quite busy, unless TfL do a soft opening on the Monday afternoon (just randomly opening the gates around 3pm).

I believe the Lizzy Line Oysters are already available to purchase

 

[James H]

I believe there are more VIP / press trips on Monday, including the Lord Mayor of London.

 

[Horizon22]

I don't believe the gates are going to be open immediately anyway, nor at every entrance in order to organise crowd control. At Paddington for instance, the Bakerloo link won't open until later in the day.

It will likely be busy, but its very much a guessing game but I'd expect somewhere between 300-700.

The station (and trains) are air-conditioned/filtered, so won't be too warm.

 

[calcium]

I don't believe the gates are going to be open immediately anyway, nor at every entrance in order to organise crowd control. At Paddington for instance, the Bakerloo link won't open until later in the day.

It will likely be busy, but its very much a guessing game but I'd expect somewhere between 300-700.

The station (and trains) are air-conditioned/filtered, so won't be too warm.

Wait sorry, bakerloo link won't open until later in the day? I'm planning on taking the bakerloo line from Waterloo to Paddington on the day.. is that a problem?


Thanks everyone for the answers

 

[Snow1964]

The Northern line bank branch was quietly opened about 4pm previous day. There is a fair chance similar will happen on the Monday.

If I remember correctly the trains were designed to hold 1500, so 300-700 is not that busy.

 

[JonathanH]

Wait sorry, bakerloo link won't open until later in the day? I'm planning on taking the bakerloo line from Waterloo to Paddington on the day.. is that a problem?

No, it will just mean that Oyster / Contactless passengers need to touch out on the underground gateline and back in on the Crossrail gateline making their transfer via the main concourse.

 

[calcium]

No, it will just mean that Oyster / Contactless passengers need to touch out on the underground gateline and back in on the Crossrail gateline making their transfer via the main concourse.

Oh that's no problem at all. Thanks for the clarification