Early morning services from London Padding station on Sunday, 12 May will be cancelled or delayed as overnight engineering work will extend beyond the usual finishing time.
Overnight engineering work will be taking place between London Paddington and Reading, and work to renew tracks on the approach to London Paddington will continue until 08:00 to provide sufficient time for the work to be completed.
Throughout this week, work has been taking place overnight on improvements to the track that enhance reliability and performance.
However, to complete the work, a number of sleepers require replacing to avoid the imposition of a temporary speed restriction.
The additional engineering work will affect the following Great Western Railway and Elizabeth Line services:
- 06:20 Reading to London Paddington will not run.
- 07:36 London Paddington to Great Malvern starts at Oxford
- 07:38 London Paddington to Didcot Parkway will start at Reading
- 07:51 London Paddington to Penzance will be delayed by about ten minutes
- 08:00 London Paddington to Exeter St. Davids will be delayed by about three minutes
- Elizabeth Line services between London Paddington and Ealing Broadway will not run until 09:00.
Anyone intending to travel before 08:00 should plan to use London Underground or bus services. Information on alternative routes can be found using Transport for London;s which can be found online at https://tfl.gov.uk/plan-a-journey/
For those passengers using mainline services, journeys can be checked in advance a https://www.gwr.com or with National Rail Enquiries at https://www.nationalrail.co.uk.
During the recent Bank Holiday, services out of London Euston station and St. Pancras International were both severely affected by engineering work
We're sorry for the inconvenience this work may cause passengers on Sunday morning. The need for this additional work was identified whilst our teams were carrying out planned track renewals overnight this week as part of our £140m Thames Valley Performance Improvement Plan and has to be completed before services can operate.
As services will start later and may be subject to change, it's important that those planning to travel via London Paddington on Sunday morning plan their journey in advance.
Marcus Jones, managing director for Network Rail's Western Route
With respect to the apparent requirement for additional works and at short notice …sounds very much like the infrastructure owner hasn’t got a proper grip on the condition of the asset that they are required to maintain.