The opening of the new Elizabeth line on Tuesday introduces a host of new interchange options. Many are within the stations while others are new out-of-station interchanges (OSIs) with nearby stations. This is what’s coming:
Paddington: The new station is accessed from the Eastbourne Terrace side of the main station near platform 1. Escalators and lifts take you down to a new ticket hall with gates leading to the platforms. You can also access the Bakerloo line from this entrance making it step free. There are OSIs with the National Rail platforms, the other Underground entrances and also Lancaster Gate on the Central Line.
Bond Street: When it opens there will be access from within the existing Central and Jubilee Line station, as well as a new entrance on Hanover Square. This entrance will have an OSI with Oxford Circus for connections with the Victoria, Bakerloo and Central Lines.
Tottenham Court Road: The station is within the existing Northern and Central Line station with a new entrance at Dean Street along Oxford Street. There are no new OSIs here.
Farringdon: The big Cross-London interchange. Within the existing station you can switch to the Thameslink network and also the Circle, Hammersmith and City and Metropolitan lines. There is also limited access to Barbican station.
Liverpool Street: The new station has entrances within both Moorgate and Liverpool Street Underground stations. Moorgate links to the Northern line and Great Northern services towards Finsbury Park, as well as the Circle, Hammersmith and City and Metropolitan lines which also serve Liverpool Street along with the Central line. The existing OSIs link the Underground station with the National Rail platforms (where Elizabeth line trains to Shenfield depart) and there will be a new OSI for the Broadgate entrance which opens with the Elizabeth line.
Whitechapel: Interchange within the existing station with the District and Hammersmith and City lines and London Overground.
Canary Wharf: See below.
Custom House: The Elizabeth line (with gates) is alongside the DLR (with validators) here. There is a new OSI linking the two stations.
Woolwich: The new station is in No 1 Street, a short walk from the entrances to both Woolwich Arsenal DLR and National Rail stations. There is an OSI linking the Elizabeth line with both existing stations.
Abbey Wood: The two halves of Abbey Wood almost look like separate stations, but there are three overbridges linking the two island platforms and the ticket hall and concourse with a common gateline are attached to one of them.
Canary Wharf
Unusually there are three separate stations all called Canary Wharf. The Elizabeth line station is pretty much adjacent to three different DLR stations and there are new OSIs for all three, along with an OSI for the Jubilee line station. Neither the new tube map nor the combined Rail and Tube services map show all the links clearly, so I’ve drawn my own diagram (with a little help from Geoff Marshall) to illustrate what’s possible.
For comparison, here are snippets of the other two official maps. On the left is the tube map where the Elizabeth line blob is missing a station name. You could follow the dotted lines and find either the correct Canary Wharf, or the incorrect West India Quay. On the right is the rail and tube services map which is arguably worse. Here the words West India Quay are positioned directly above the Elizabeth line station and could easily apply to that and the DLR station next to it. Sadly West India Quay is actually the nearest DLR station to the Elizabeth line which means that the fact that trains from Bank to Lewisham miss it out is a little awkward.
Page updated 07/06/2022 to include Geoff’s (much better) version of the Canary Wharf map.
Liverpool Street (Broadgate) is not having OSIs to Bank and Fenchurch Street that the NR station has. The Bank one is reasonably well used and this will surely affect people when their Elizabeth line service diverts to the core.
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And is there to be an OSI between the Barbican end of Farringdon and Barbican station itself? Yes there’s the lift between the two inside the gateline, and yes, that whole interchange is pretty pointless as an interchange, but it’s the kind of seemingly useless interchange that quite a few people will actually use (cf Edgware Road-Edgware Road).
Hi Si,
When the EL diverts through the core people can exit at the Moorgate end of Liverpool Street for the Northern line to Bank. The Fenchurch Street one is potentially more problematic so I’ll raise that.
As to Barbican I don’t think there will be anything. I get the feeling they don’t want to encourage it as it’s not shown on the tube map or the rail and tube services map.
True they can access the Northern line at Moorgate. However, if changing to Waterloo and City (or DLR) then the OSI that avoids doing a one station hop via Central or Northern by using the current OSI is where there’s a potential for the missing OSI to be annoying.
I agree they don’t want anything at Barbican. The question will be whether people will use it as an interchange even though it isn’t and they don’t really want you to. Other places have seen OSIs added for that.
So, yes, the Waterloo and City line is a concern. I want to check these OSIs aren’t already set up because I discovered yesterday through my son that Paddington C+H&C is linked to Paddington EL even though the list I’d been given didn’t make it clear. As for the DLR, people coming from Shenfield probably already change at Stratford and those coming from the West will probably use Canary Wharf or Custom House depending on where their destination is. Finally, people who might change between Liverpool Street and Fenchurch Street have probably come from the Hackney lines so won’t be affected. Anyone from the Shenfield line is likely to change between Stratford and West Ham.
For the Barbican EL to H&C/Met interchange (or not) OSI question there are me thinks two issues: the first is that of using the ‘in-station’ lift and OSI through two barriers will (without an OSI) lead to different fares being charged for the same journey – how difficult is that going to be to explain and justify? and what happens when people twig, and over use the lift? – and the second (which is probably not unique to Barbican) is that EL trains (and hence stations) are long enough that for someone at the ‘wrong’ end of an EL train the ‘optimal’ change is to use the less expected interchange, rather than have a long (and unnecessary) walk.
Do you know if it’ll be possible to free-interchange from Liverpool Street NR to Moorgate (by walking through the station) on Sundays, while the EL is not operating?
Good question. I don’t know, but I’d say probably not. They’d need to staff the platforms, and if work was going on in the station then it would be a no.
Will there be any extension of the Continuation Entry at Canary Wharf? As I understand it, the rationale for having a Continuation Entry at the Jubilee line gateline nearest to the DLR is to reflect the possibility of DLR users not touching out when making an interchange (personally, when doing a DLR–>Jubilee line interchange, I do not bother touching out at DLR validators, since I know about the Continuation Entry). Will this principle be extended to the Crossrail gateline as well, or will DLR–>Crossrail interchanges be penalised for not touching out at the DLR station?
Interesting question. I’ll have to ask about that. One difference is that the gates of the Elizabeth line are at ground level rather than down a large escalator at the Underground station. But I can see it might be worthwhile.