u/RussellNorrisPiastri

I'm doing a project where I am looking at High Speed Shuttles within London.

My objective is to find which services need speeding up, and if there are any gaps in the Network.

I have to input this data manually since AI is weird. I'm therefore trying to rack my brain thinking of which High Speed routes exist in London.

I already have

• Reading
• Heathrow
• East Croydon
• HS1 (Stratford, Ebbsfleet)
• Weybridge
• Luton
• Shenfield
• Orpington

I would appreciate any further suggestions anyone might have.

The Colours represent their average speed. Red is Fast, Blue is not as Fast

Edit: The Experiment has concluded, and I have the following information which is very interesting.

Epsom, Leatherhead and Dorking need a faster service.

Epping needs an express service.

Wokingham/Bracknell need a faster service.

TL;DR: We Need Crossrail 2 Built

This nonsense needs to be stopped by the Government.

King's College London is infamous for poor student satisfaction. They will shove their entire engineering department up to Cranfield then tell any students housed there to get lost if they want any facilities built.

No thanks. They can buy some Land in London instead.

About £0.50 in Tunnels btw

Yesterday there was an article pushed around all the Train subreddits about the Elizabeth Line competing with Heathrow Express Services.

Which got me thinking: There's a fast train from Paddington to Reading which takes 23 minutes, yet it's 2.5x the distance from Paddington to Heathrow. So if it's truly an express service, why doesn't it take 2.5x less time?

The trains run on the exact same line, so it's not a problem with the rails. If the trains are the problem just change the trains. If the schedule is the problem, build the Heathrow Western Rail Approach Service and make it go through.

The only obstacle I can see is the approach curve, which you solve by a simple 3 mile tunnel to Southall.

The Elizabeth Line can't compete with a 10 minute service with no intermediate stops. This is the way forward imo.

edit: https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:C28819/2026-05-07/detailed

Finally got the answer: The Heathrow Express takes 9 minutes to get to Southall, then the remaining time to get to Heathrow itself.

Therefore my tunnel is actually a great idea.

Yesterday there was an article pushed around all the Train subreddits about the Elizabeth Line competing with Heathrow Express Services.

Which got me thinking: There's a fast train from Paddington to Reading which takes 23 minutes, yet it's 2.5x the distance from Paddington to Heathrow. So if it's truly an express service, why doesn't it take 2.5x less time?

The trains run on the exact same line, so it's not a problem with the rails. If the trains are the problem just change the trains. If the schedule is the problem, build the Heathrow Western Rail Approach Service and make it go through.

The only obstacle I can see is the approach curve, which you solve by a simple 3 mile tunnel to Southall.

The Elizabeth Line can't compete with a 10 minute service with no intermediate stops. This is the way forward imo.

The future of Heathrow Express should be reconsidered amid falling passenger numbers, according to the Mayor of London.

The Airports National Policy Statement (ANPS), co-authored by Transport for London (TfL) and London Mayor, Sir Sadiq Khan, has suggested the current operation should be reviewed amid the success of the Elizabeth line.h

In its submission to the Department for Transport (DfT), the two parties say ridership on the open access service “is steadily falling and we need to reconsider whether this service is the best use of these valuable train paths into Paddington.

“The current service contract ends in 2028 and alternative options should be considered that can increase ridership at a lower cost to customers to the airport.”

The submission, made in February, was released in a Freedom of Information request. The DfT said a decision on the future of Heathrow Express “will be announced in due course,” though RAIL understands it is expected before the end of the year.

Heathrow Express has been operating services to and from London Paddington since 1998 at a frequency of four trains per hour (tph).

Services take 15 minutes to reach Terminals 2 & 3 and 21 minutes to get to Terminal 5.

The company is a subsidiary of Heathrow Airport Ltd, with trains operated and maintained by Great Western Railway since 2018 in a ten-year agreement.

Heathrow Express Business Lead, Aoife Considine, said the company recorded 4.5m journeys in 2025.

She said: “Passengers value our convenient, direct service - twice as quick as the Elizabeth line - and this is reflected in the latest Rail Customer Experience national survey, where Heathrow Express achieved 90% passenger satisfaction and ranked among the top performers in the UK for value for money.”

Office of Rail and Road (ORR) passenger numbers have shown a post-pandemic decline from 4.7 million in 2022-23 to just under 4.3m in 2024-25. The peak of the last ten years was 6.7m in 2018-19.

ORR quarterly data published so far for 2025/26 shows the company arrested the slide across the first nine months of the last financial year, but didn’t record any growth either.

Heathrow Express managers expect higher numbers in 2026 and say that expected lower post-COVID figures have coincided with the arrival of the Elizabeth line in May 2022.

The Elizabeth line operates 6tph to the airport from Central and East London. 4tph continue to Terminal 4 and 2tph reach Terminal 5.

In the same submission to the DfT, the Mayor and TfL said the ten additional Elizabeth line trains currently being built will double Terminal 5 frequencies.

“We would be keen to discuss how frequencies can be further increased to support more people accessing the airport using the Elizabeth line,” TfL and the Mayor said in their submission.

RAIL understands Network Rail views the idea of running additional Elizabeth line services on the Main lines challenging, as they would have to use the flat crossing at Ladbroke Grove because they run to/from the Relief lines.

However, a source suggested TfL would look for additional Elizabeth line services to use the Relief lines and let GWR use any released Main Line paths.

Alex Williams, TfL Chief Customer and Strategy Officer, said: “With limited capacity on the Great Western Main Line (GWML) and competing demands from a number of train services, the focus must be on using it in a way that benefits the most passengers and improves reliability.

“As customers increasingly choose the Elizabeth line for its frequent, direct services, and with Heathrow Express’s current GWML access ending in 2028, we are working with the government, Network Rail and other stakeholders to consider how best these train paths are used.”

Source: https://www.railmagazine.com/news/mayor-of-london-and-tfl-call-for-heathrow-express-future-to-be-reconsidered

Problems:

• East London is rife with connectivity problems.
• The current Suffragette Line is not fit for purpose.

Solution: Create an Overground Line using existing track, linking up disjointed lines and stations.

All of the stations on the map are connected by rail. Yet they aren't connected by a direct, joined service. They all serve in-demand, busy locations such as the City of London, Westfield Complex, and neighbouring transport interchanges.

The only possible obstacle is a necessity to "leap" over the mainline at Stratford in order to continue north. This is fixed with a flyover at Bow Junction, but increases costs by a fair bit.

If Stratford Station doesn't have platform space, there is a possibility to divert the line to Stratford International Via Temple Mills East Junction. This does require the building of new platforms at Stratford International, but does increase the train Capacity for the Stratford area.

I've named the Line the Olympic Line for it's proximity to the Olympic Park.

No idea why it just suddenly stops at Brixton