UK: Work to electrify the western section of the future Elizabeth Line route on the Great Western Main Line to the west of London has been completed as far as Maidenhead.
Infrastructure manager Network Rail led the three-year project which saw a workforce of 800 people to install 1 400 overhead structures and 225 km of overhead wires on the 19 route-km between Stockley Junction and Maidenhead.
Electrification forms part of the Crossrail project, which will see Elizabeth Line services running from Reading and Heathrow Airport in the west to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east, using new tunnels that have been bored under central London. As part of a phased opening, Elizabeth Line services will begin running west of Stockley Junction in December 2019 using a fleet of Class 345 electric multiple-units that Bombardier is supplying from its factory in Derby. In the meantime, main line operator GWR plans to start using Bombardier EMUs to run some services to Maidenhead from May 2017.
