Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

A bearded man, probably about fifty years old and wearing an ill-fitting overcoat, sidles up to me as I stand on the platform at Liverpool Street Station. "Isn't she lovely?" he asks in the same gently adoring tone that one might use while standing over a newborn baby. "Er, yeah," I say, taking another look at the new Class 345 train in front of me. "Really lovely," he mumbles, almost to himself, as he walks away and starts taking close-up photos of the train's headlamps.

He's not the only trainspotter either: there's at least five or six, all walking slowly up and down the platform admiring the train's curved and shiny exterior. Eventually it's time for the train to depart and we all hop on—and holy shit, it's the coldest British train I've ever been on.

The Elizabeth line

This seven-carriage Class 345 train is the first of 70 that are being built for the Elizabeth line—the new train line, constructed by Crossrail, that will eventually stretch from Reading and Heathrow in the west to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east, with some massive new tunnels below central London in the middle. The new tunnels won't open until December 2018, but some parts of the line will come online before then.

Today there is a single Class 345 train running off-peak service between Liverpool Street and Shenfield, but by winter there will be 11 trains on that stretch. In May 2018 the same thing will happen between Paddington and Heathrow; and then, from December 2018 to December 2019, full service through the central tunnels will gradually scale up. Read our in-depth piece on the Elizabeth line and Crossrail for more info on the tunnels; the rest of this story will be about the trains themselves, which are really quite nice.

British Rail Class 345 trains

The British Rail Class 345 train is a brand new design built by Bombardier in Derby. They are quite similar to the Overground trains (Class 378), and the newest London Underground "S" rolling stock that can be found on the Metropolitan, Circle, District, and Hammersmith & City lines. Class 345 is fully air conditioned (some of the people on the train actually told me it was too cold) and has a walk-through design—if you have really good eyesight, you can see all the way down to the far bulkhead.

Speaking of which, that's one way in which the Elizabeth line trains differ from the Overground and Underground: they're really, really long. The first Class 345 trains will have seven carriages and measure 160 metres in length, but they will eventually stretch to nine carriages and 205 metres once all of the platforms have been extended to support their Brobdingnagian span. Most current Underground platforms max out at just 130 metres.

The Elizabeth line trains also have a very sparse seating layout, with most seats arranged longitudinally—long strips of seats running the length of the train with a massive gangway in the middle. There are a few patches of transverse two-facing-two seating, but for the most part the train is laid out to accommodate lots of standing people, bulky suitcases, and wheelchairs and prams. The end result is that each Elizabeth line train can carry up to 1,500 people, with 450 seated. The "S" stock trains have space for 865 people, and the Northern line's 1995 stock trains have a max capacity of just 665.

To accommodate more than 1,000 standing passengers, you'll (probably) be excited to learn that the new trains have really nice grab handles: they're soft (they felt like silicone) and don't squeak. As a very tall person who regularly headbutts some of the awful wooden and plastic handles across London's public transport system, I am perhaps more excited than most to use the Elizabeth line.

Because the trains are operated by TfL, there are no toilets on the Elizabeth line, and like TfL buses, trams, and tubes, drinking alcohol is forbidden. Each Elizabeth line train is operated by just the driver; there are no conductors. Each carriage has six sets of double doors (three on each side), allowing for faster access and egress.

Speed-wise, the Class 345 trains are nippy—they can theoretically hit around 100mph on a good stretch of rail—but they weren't built for alacrity. The ride between Liverpool Street and Shenfield was super-smooth, however—partly because of the train's new suspension, but also because there aren't any openable windows. In the tunnels, running on brand new tracks, I expect the Elizabeth line will be positively velvety.

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Sebastian Anthony

Elizabeth line tech

The Elizabeth line, as you'd expect (or hope), is fairly high-tech. The bits you'll interact with the most are the big information screens in the middle of each carriage, and Wi-Fi Internet access on the platforms and on the trains.

The high-res information screens show the usual route and interchange information, but will also provide more general travel information—if another line is closed or delayed, for example. They will not be used to display ads, a TfL spokesperson told me. New Overground trains will display ads on their information screens, though.

On-train Wi-Fi, which will only be available once the tunnels open up in 2018, is still a bit of a mystery. Usually on-train Wi-Fi is provided via a bunch of cellular modems, and then the bandwidth is shared amongst the train's Wi-Fi users. TfL has previously stated that the Elizabeth line tunnels will have Wi-Fi and 4G connectivity, so presumably the intention is to install some cellular base stations down there. We'll update this story when we manage to extract more information from TfL.

The Elizabeth line trains apparently use "up to 30 percent less" energy than older trains, thanks to their use of lighter materials, regenerative braking, and adaptive lighting and temperature controls. TfL previously trialled a type of regenerative braking on the Victoria line in 2015, where it apparently reduced a station's energy usage by 5 percent (which is quite a lot when you're consuming many megawatt-hours of electricity per day).

There are lots of CCTV cameras, too: at least two cameras are embedded within each information screen, and I'm sure there are others dotted around as well.

Listing image by Sebastian Anthony