THE start of Elizabeth Line (Crossrail) services, which will transform cross-London transport is now just a year away.

To mark the countdown, Transport for London (TfL) has released a December 2018 Tube map, with the Elizabeth line displayed.

Its inclusion will be among the most significant changes to the look of the Tube map in recent decades.

Construction of the Elizabeth line has now entered its final stages and will open to the public in phases from December next year, when 10 new state-of-the-art stations will open.

The new railway, jointly sponsored by the Department for Transport and TfL, will connect stations such as Paddington to Canary Wharf in only 17 minutes, transforming how Londoners and visitors move quickly across the Capital.

From December 2018, the line will initially operate as three services:

  • Paddington (Elizabeth line station) to Abbey Wood via central London
  • Paddington (mainline station) to Heathrow (Terminals 2 & 3 and 4)
  • Liverpool Street (mainline station) to Shenfield

Fifteen trains per hour will run through the new tunnels, increasing to 24 trains per hour through the central section by May 2019.

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From December 2019, customers from Reading and Heathrow will be able to travel all the way through central London to the West End, City and beyond without needing to change trains.

By linking Berkshire and Heathrow in the west, to east London and Essex in the east, the line will transform travel across the South East, carrying more than 200 million passengers every year.

It will increase rail capacity in central London by ten per cent, reduce congestion on the London Underground, while an extra 1.5 million people will be within 45 minutes commuting distance of London’s key employment districts.

The new stations and travel links are expected to boost the economy by £42bn and support thousands of new jobs and homes.

Elizabeth line customers will benefit from new, longer trains with walk-through air-conditioned carriages, live travel information and free wi-fi.  All 41 stations will be step-free from street to platform.

Intensive work continues on Crossrail, completing the fit-out of the new stations and installing power, signalling and communications equipment.

The installation of platform screen doors has now reached the half way mark and more than two thirds of escalators have been installed.