GWR - rail closures
Published: 14 October 2024
GWR – Rail closures
The construction of the HS2 station at Old Oak Common just to the west of London Paddington continues, meaning the railway into London Paddington will be closed on Sunday 17 November and between 27 and 29 December this year. At the same time, Network Rail will also be carrying out track maintenance designed to improve punctuality and reliability of services in the Thames Valley area.
All lines between Ealing Broadway and London Paddington will be closed on these dates, as well as the usual Christmas closedown of all GWR service on 25 and 26 December.
We will be diverting some of our high-speed services from Devon & Cornwall, and South Wales to London Euston instead of London Paddington. These services will be reservation only and will not call at Reading.
On Sunday 17 November, all other GWR services will start/terminate at Reading, where customers can change for Elizabeth Line services to Ealing Broadway and then from there to London Underground. We’ll also have ticket acceptance in place on Chiltern (from Oxford) and SWR services into London Marylebone and London Waterloo respectively. The Night Riviera sleeper will instead run to/from London Euston instead of Paddington. More information on this date is available at www.gwr.com/engineering.
Between 27 and 29 December, we will again be running some of our Devon & Cornwall and South Wales services into London Euston, with other high-speed services terminating at Reading. Our services from Didcot Parkway will terminate at Ealing Broadway, with some extended back to Swindon, Bristol Parkway or Cardiff Central. Again customers can use the London Underground from Ealing Broadway into Central London, as well as Chiltern (from Oxford) and SWR services too.
Our Thames Valley branch line services (Greenford, Windsor, Marlow, and Henley) are unaffected by these works. I should say too that the Heathrow Express will not be running to the airport on the dates listed above or Saturday 16th November.
All the revised journey details have been updated and are now in online journey planners. Customers buying tickets for these dates will therefore have the right information about their services. We have also set up a dedicated page for more information at www.gwr.com/christmas. We will be making customers aware through traditional and social media, on board and at station announcements, as well as station posters. We will also have GWR colleagues based at London Euston on the affected dates to help customers who may be unfamiliar with travelling from there.
Old Oak Common is the most significant addition to the UK's railway network in more than a century. Once complete HS2 will link the country's key cities of Birmingham and London with fast, reliable services, while easing congestion on the existing network. We're working with HS2 to rigorously plan the construction work to reduce the impact on customers as much as possible, with much of the work taking place overnight and at weekends when regular maintenance takes place on the railway.
We’re also working across the industry to understand the impact of Old Oak Common on GWR services and our timetable once the station build is complete and HS2 services start – again we will keep you updated on any news.
Thomas Lydon | Public Affairs Manager | Great Western Railway
E: Thomas.Lydon@GWR.com
Toby Elliott | Head of Communications | Network Rail Western
E: toby.elliott@networkrail.co.uk