London's new Elizabeth Line could be extended further into Essex with a council dreaming big.

The line, which has barely been open for a year and currently runs from Shenfield and Brentwood into London, is popular with commuters.

And it could be extended even further into south Essex as Thurrock Council wants to link up Kent and Essex to the commuter hub.

The council wants to link things up with a giant loop between Abbey Wood and Romford, calling at stops including Dartford, Gravesend, Tilbury Town, West Thurrock and South Ockendon. 

The scheme, however, may not take off for quite a while as it would require extensive and expensive engineering work.

The cash-strapped council's plans are just "framework" at the moment, but it said in a previous statement: "[This would be] a transformation of Thurrock’s railways to support the delivery of new homes and jobs, improve public transport accessibility and realise the borough’s full potential as an important economic hub at the heart of the Thames Estuary."

MailOnline has also revealed this week the £19billion Elizabeth line will not run any direct trains between each end of the network when the final full timetable is launched in May.

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Reading and Shenfield will not be connected by through trains. Instead, it will continue to run from Reading and Heathrow to Abbey Wood and also now from Shenfield to Heathrow in May.

This is because of very low demand for journeys between the eastern and western sections of the line, TfL told the paper, based on customer journey patterns.