Great Western Railway is advising passengers to plan ahead this Christmas and to travel as early as possible due to Network Rail take out Engineering Works on the Great Western Mainline
On Sunday 24th December and Wednesday 27th December, trains will not be able to operate out of London Paddington. Whilst some services will be able to be diverted via London Marylebone – these are expected to be in high demand.
The majority of services will be terminating either Reading or Slough.
Local trains in the Thames Valley will operate between Reading and Slough. Where replacement bus services will take customers onwards to their destination.
When should I travel?
Between Thursday 21st December and Friday 22nd December, Great Western Railway will be operating a normal daily service.
Saturday 23rd December will see some platforms at London Paddington will be closed. This will affect a small number of trains with regards to arrival and departure times.
On Sunday 24th December, the railway between London Paddington and Slough will be closed.
Both Monday 25th December and Tuesday 26th December will see no service will be operating at any point during the day.
On Wednesday 27th December, the railway between London Paddington and Slough will be closed.
From Thursday 28th December until Sunday 31st December 2017, a reduced weekend service will be in operating to and from London Paddington.
Monday 1st January will see a normal Bank Holiday service in operation.
Work near Southampton will affect GWR services between 24th December and 1st January. This will lead to GWR services diverting via Eastleigh to access Southampton Central via the Salisbury Direction.
Timetable Changes in the New Year
Great Western Railway's new Electrostar trains will be extended to operate between London Paddington and Didcot Parkway. GWR's new Electrostar trains extended to operate between London Paddington and Didcot Parkway.
New Intercity Express Trains (IETs) will have new routes to serve Oxford, Great Malvern, Worcester Foregate Street and Newbury.
What did the officials say?
GWR Operations Manager Rob Mullen said “We advise customers to plan their journey in advance at GWR.com and travel on or before 23 December if possible. While we recognise the disruption this work will cause, and thank passengers in advance for their understanding, it is vital to enable us to run more electric trains delivering more seats and more frequent services.”
Chris Fuoco, Senior Incident Officer at Network Rail, said “We are urging passengers to check before you travel over this Christmas period as Network Rail undertakes a £40m investment on the Great Western Main Line and Crossrail as part of our Railway Upgrade Plan. This package of work is vital in order to accommodate GWR's new fleet of trains and to enable Crossrail services to begin at the end of next year. I'd like to thank passengers in advance for their patience over this period.”
- Visit the Great Western Railway Website
For more information
