TfL Rail #2

With the grand opening of Crossrail being only months away now, allegedly, some more noticeable evidence of progress has emerged over the past few months. In addition to the introduction of its rolling stock, the Class 345 Aventras, on the Eastern TFL Rail service between Liverpool Street and Shenfield, or the revealing of purple roundels at Custom House Station, some services along the Great Western Main Line have been taken over by TFL in preparation for Elizabeth Line services in West London. This means even more new trains for services from Paddington and the disappearance of Heathrow Connect, a name which became all too familiar throughout my childhood.

A GWR Class 387 is seen at Hayes & Harlington, during their short period of time operating the shuttle service.

Eventually, all bar two trains per hour on the relief line of the GWML will be Elizabeth Line services going through Central London. Whilst currently trains to Reading and Maidenhead are still operated by Great Western Railway, on Sunday 20th May TFL Rail took over both the half-hourly Heathrow Connect service and the Hayes-Paddington shuttle, operated for around 18 months by GWR. All the stations along this route, apart from Paddington and Heathrow, have also been under TFL Rail control for several months now. The new base for this operation is at Old Oak Common, although it is an entirely separate facility than the Heathrow Express and GWR units and will eventually be used to power the Elizabeth Line. It was planned for all the TFL Rail services to be operated with the Class 345 units, but for now the Class 360 units are being retained for use on the Heathrow Connect services (more on this matter later), which gives some stations on the GWML three types of train class to choose from at times.

The Heathrow Connect services have been around since 2005 and were run jointly on behalf of Heathrow Express and GWR. It was essentially a stopping service between Heathrow Terminal 4 or 5 (the terminal they went to changed so often I can't really give a definite answer) and Paddington, although for some reason it has never called at Acton Main Line. Not many people actually used them to get to Heathrow, given the extortionate fares and lack of oyster card allowance to the airport, although they were extremely popular in rush hour when 5-cars was a luxury compared to the inappropriate Turbo trains that used to run the Thames Valley services into Paddington. It's ironic that since the introduction of the Class 387s and later 345s I now moan whenever the shorter Class 360s turn up. It was also really reliable and so were the rolling stock - even though in the past two years the quality of services has deteriorated greatly with lots of cancellations, whilst the trains have become increasingly worn out and undependable. The service was meant to receive a whole new identity, with Class 345 Aventras taking over, although the signalling within the tunnels of Heathrow Airport is a bit old fashioned and non-standard, so the new trains are having a bit of trouble running down there, so for now the Class 360s remain on these duties. The trains were spotted sporting TFL Rail logos a few days prior to the changeover and the maps inside are completely different, being in the style of TFL. Although there is less new stock than anticipated, I'm really glad I've managed to keep these trains for a while longer - after all, losing what you grew up with is difficult. As the takeover date was a Sunday, when the Hayes & Harlington shuttle doesn't run, only these units were actually present, although the day afterwards was when things became interesting.

TFL Rail 345014 is seen at Ealing Broadway on a trip to Hayes & Harlington.

 Only two trains are required for the shuttle between Hayes and Paddington so despite the notorious unreliability of the Class 345s (which require an on-board engineer on every trip they make) the first day went quite smoothly. For now, seven car units which were originally on the Eastern route are being used, although eventually it is expected that these services will be upgraded to 9 cars in length. It's quite funny that less than two years ago Acton Main Line station was only served by 2 carriage Class 165, but now you have nothing but 7, 8, or in the future 9 cars. The station has really grown in popularity as a result. Although my proper photography session was in the evening, I couldn't resist deviating my regular commute to school slightly in order to sample the Aventras and really put them to the test - in rush hour. Inevitably, people marvelled at the emergence of new trains, with a few taking photos, although they are not proving too popular in the sense that passengers from certain stations have lost their free Wifi, plug sockets or (almost) guaranteed seats. Under GWR, the Hayes shuttles were busy in the morning but contained a high density transverse seating layout, so typically in the first and last carriages you'd only have around 7 or 8 standees, whilst in the middle (where there are no station entrances/exits) everyone would have a seat. However, the Aventras consist of a mostly longitudinal seating layout, with the front and back being fully this type, whilst in the middle (like the photo to your right) there are a few transverse examples. Whilst this is effective for the core section in Central London, people from Southall and West Ealing are not happy about having to stand until Paddington due to the lack of available seats - the train leaves Hayes & Harlington with no more available at the rear. Goodness knows what people will be feeling from Iver, Burnham or Taplow, when they are commuting into the City for around 50 minutes without a seat. Nevertheless, the trains are certainly different from the distinct GWR profile, whether that being the seat moquette or indeed the announcements, which are much more mainstream on the TFL Rail services and are in a minimalistic style, which some enthusiasts don't like at all, but personally I feel this is the most effective way at conveying information to passengers, which is ultimately what they're there for. One improvement I would make though, is that at West Ealing it simply says "change for National Rail services", although given that interchange onto services to Greenford is now one of the main purposes of this station, I think this should be recognised. After my brief morning experience, I was excited to return later in the day to sample them properly.

A GWR Turbo and a TFL Rail Aventra stand side by side at West Ealing.

One thing which has been noticeable about the 345s is their superior acceleration to the Class 387s and also their ability to spend hardly any time waiting at stations - before I could comfortably run across the bridge at West Ealing to the other platform upon alighting and take an offside photo, although this was not possible on the Monday evening. They've also been arriving at West Ealing Station really early in the morning rush hour, which results in a mass of commuters running down the tiny stairwell even though they still have a few minutes. The seats aren't as comfortable as those on the 387s either, although this emphasises how Central London and almost tube-orientated the design of these National Rail trains has been. Reliability of the TFL Rail has been quite decent so far - due to the nature of the GWML there are almost always problems and occasionally the Hayes shuttle has had to be abandoned completely, although one noticeable improvement is that the almost instant suspension of Heathrow Connect whenever there was a problem has stopped, which should hopefully mean a more trustworthy service for Hanwell, served only by the airport services. Interestingly, even though the Aventras have been the cause of many train failures on the East side, on one particular Sunday so many of the Heathrow Connect 360s needed attention that the 345s ended up saving the day and taking over the service, only as far as Hayes, with people having to use the 140 bus instead for reaching the airport.

A line diagram inside the TFL Rail Class 345s.

 The train times have remained broadly the same under TFL Rail, although now there is a slightly wider selection of trains later in the evening, with the Hayes shuttle continuing until around midnight, whereas previously it stopped at 2130. On some occasions, they leave Paddington 2 minutes behind a GWR service so are hardly useful in that respect, although on other occasions I bet they've been very handy for people travelling home. Additionally, since the introduction of TFL, oyster cards are now accepted on the stopping services (the Express will be implemented later) to Heathrow, which has been ridiculously lacking since the introduction of the Connect. There are now barriers at each of the stations at the airport, but even though you touch in if you just travel between terminals it still won't charge you anything. TFL Rail now also appears on the tube map, bringing with it five brand new stations and some neat links between existing ones. What it fails to mention though, is the premium fares in place for travelling to Heathrow Airport. Even though you can use oyster, an adult single costs something like £10.00, which is certainly not normal zone 6 pricing and would put many people off. The tube map though suggests that it costs the exact same amount of money as the Piccadilly Line, which is a rather cunning way of TFL gaining more revenue, but I'm sure people won't be happy at all when they touch out and find themselves drained of their oyster balance. They could've at least written special fares apply. Also, the tube map fails to mention that Acton Main Line, West Ealing and Hanwell lack a timetabled Sunday service of any sort, which I believe nothing else on the tube map does, so I'm sure people wishing to travel to these areas wouldn't be happy if they turned up at Paddington and there were no trains - again, footnotes would be appreciated. Hopefully, when the GWML becomes a four track railway again on Sundays, these stations can gain a service seven days a week, as the poor provision really is quite ridiculous given how populous the areas they serve are. In addition to the new trains, all the stations along the GWML are expected to receive a major refurbishment, but there has hardly been any progress since the contract was handed over to TFL and there's no way that this will be completed on time, so another disappointment on their behalf.


Overall though, despite Transport for London's shortcomings and deception, as well as the slight downgrade regarding seats and technological facilities compared to the Class 387s, the takeover of TFL Rail has been better than expected. Despite some angry passengers on the Eastern side in regards to the reliability of their service, over here it's generally been pretty good and even though the 345s aren't as luxurious as their predecessors on the Hayes shuttles, I personally don't think anything will be able to beat the magnificence of the GWR 387s, which remain my favourite trains on the National Rail network. It will be sad to only have 2 trains per hour of them from late 2019, even if train travel to Central London becomes easier and the Crossrail project develops and (hopefully) flourishes.

Thanks for reading and stay safe!