In message , at 09:10:19 on Wed, 25 Jul
2018, Recliner remarked:
Enquiring minds wish to know whether its launch in December will be
delayed until next May as a result of the timetable-freeze.

I thought the bit of Crossrail that is scheduled to begin in December
is on dedicated track so doesn't need to coordinate a timetable change
with the rest of the network anymore than the Waterloo & City does.

I think that's correct. The only new track to open will be the central
core, accessed only by Abbey Wood trains.

OK, so that appears to be sufficiently air-gapped off at Abbey Wood
to mean TfL could run that service independently of Network Rail
potentially having to approve any of the timetable from Abbey Wood to
Paddington.

I presume we are all on the same page that NR has no influence over by
whom and when trains are run on that section?

The next round of 'more through running' hailed for May 2019 does
however require route knowledge from Paddington to Shenfield that didn't
previously exist.

GTR's May 2018 timetable flopped in part because the December 2017
timetable didn't include enough ECS or shadow-PAX through-running
route-knowledge services.

How are Tfl expecting to create a big enough route-knowledge base to run
the May 2019 service if the December 2018 lack-of-timetable change
scuppers all the expected Shenfield-Paddington route learning diagrams?
--
Roland Perry