Transport for London has released renders of what the London’s new Crossrail trains will look like, providing a glimpse of what a British commute of the future might looks like.


Designed in Britain by Bombardier in Derby, the trains will offer full walk-through carriages, air conditioning and Wi-Fi and 4G as standard. Fully accessible for wheelchair uses, the Crossrail train carriages don’t look unlike the new design for London Underground tube trains, designed by British design firm Priestmangoode.

Adding a total of 10 per cent extra capacity to London’s rail network, each 200 metres long, train is one and a half times longer than a tube train and will provide space for 1,500 (!) passengers, along with four wheelchair users.

The lightweight design of the Crossrail train carriage also makes it very energy efficient, using 30 per cent less electricity than standard carriages by regenerating electricity back into the power supply when braking. Journey times between Liverpool Street and Shenfield will be quicker than the old trains they replace as a result, too.


The first train should come off the production line in Derby next year. When fully operational come 2019, Crossrail trains will run between Reading and Heathrow in the west through to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east. However, TFL states that:

The first trains to operate on the Liverpool Street to Shenfield part of the Crossrail route from May 2017 will initially use shorter seven-carriage versions of the new trains. All subsequent trains will be the full-length nine carriage version, to be first introduced between Heathrow and Paddington from May 2018. All the trains will be converted to nine carriages by the end of 2019.

So expect a first taste of Crossrail to be a little less spacious than what’s on show here.

[TFL]




This post originally appeared on Gizmodo UK, which is gobbling up the news in a different timezone.