Alterations to services between London Euston and Reading

Due to a speed restriction over defective track between London Euston and Reading all lines are blocked.

Train services running to and from these stations may be delayed or revised. Disruption is expected until 10:30 17/11.

Customer Advice
We apologise for the disruption to your journey today.

Network Rail have identified a broken rail joint in the Acton area which needs an immediate repair. Network Rail colleagues are on site and working to fix the track.
It is estimated that it will take until approximately 09:45 to affect the repair and safely open the railway.

08:33 London Euston to Penzance due 14:06 will be started from Reading.
It will no longer call at London Euston.

08:34 Bristol Parkway to London Euston due 10:43 will be terminated at Reading.
It will no longer call at London Euston.

09:03 London Euston to Swansea due 12:21 is being delayed at London Euston.

Agreed - now done. 

A thought..

We seem to have quite a serious case of "thread drift" here - shouldn't most of these recent posts be on the thread about what will happen during the blockades rather than the Lord Hendy one?

I suspect that GWR will terminate at Reading should Euston ever get to that state while they are using it. Or Ealing Broadway perhaps for one or two an hour.

I don’t know, it’s almost as if we need a rebuilt Euston station with loads more platforms and space to help the legacy station cope. 

Perhaps at the same time there could be a new, reliable High Speed line to help the legacy trains cope as people flock back to rail travel?

‘Euston’ was trending earlier on X with the now usual pictures of Euston absolutely rammed full of people. I still think having GWR using Euston when Paddington is closed is a crazy idea. The station cannot cope with the services it has now without adding GWR trains and their passengers.

From a train driver at Euston this afternoon.......tweeted under a pseudonym for obvious reasons given Gareth Dennis's fate!

Wow. I've never seen Euston as crazy as this.
Megaphones and police being used for crowd control. Gateline shut because of a train being full and standing to Crewe.

This is not my idea of a safe environment, and I work to this station.

September, 2024

We listen to your safety concerns

It takes courage to raise safety concerns. You could be stepping out of your comfort zone or making yourself more visible. Fear of judgement or repercussions can stop people in their tracks. The important thing is to be heard. Sometimes, using our voice to raise a safety concern doesn’t seem to make a difference. Is anyone listening? Are they listening carefully enough to get the point? That person may not be ready to listen right now. They may never properly listen. But if you feel that no one is really listening, remember—you have options. There are people who want to listen. Perhaps this is your line manager, a supervisor, a site manager, or internal reporting channels that will help your concerns reach health and safety professionals where you work. You can turn to union representatives or colleagues in listening roles, such as workplace wellbeing champions. If you prefer to report concerns in confidence, you could speak to CIRAS. We’re a confidential safety hotline. We protect your identity and make sure your concern reaches the right people who want to listen. You can also use CIRAS to share safety concerns with companies that aren’t your employer.
Make the right call and report it

Use the CIRAS reporting app:

Fewer train services will run between London Paddington and Reading on the following dates:

    Sundays 8, 15, 22 and 29 September
    Sundays 6, 13, 20 and 27 October
    Sunday 24 November
    Sundays 8 and 15 December

Further impact is expected on Sundays from January to May 2025.

The Paddington rush can be bad, but the Euston one is worse!

Presumably there must be some good operating reason (to minimise stopping time there?) as an Ealing Broadway stop for in-bound changes for the District and Central Line would seem a good further option for those unable to travel to Paddington?

The long-distance trains will stop at Ealing Broadway for crew handovers and the lowering of the pantograph, but passengers will not be able to get off, nor will passengers on the platform at Ealing be able to board to travel to Euston.

Full details of the Christmas disruption that Great Western Railway and Elizabeth line passengers face until the end of the decade can be revealed.

All rail lines in and out of Paddington will be closed on multiple occasions over the next seven or eight years to enable the mainline and HS2 station at Old Oak Common to be completed.

GWR will divert its long-distance trains from Cornwall, Devon and South Wales – and its Night Riveria sleeper train - into Euston, with other services terminating at Reading or Ealing Broadway.

The firm admits it faces a “huge” logistical challenge but was determined to take its passengers direct into central London, though journey times will be about 15 minutes longer. It expects to run a “similar level of service”.

The Elizabeth line – the UK’s busiest rail line, with more than 700,000 passengers a day – will not run between Ealing Broadway and Paddington.

GWR invited the Evening Standard on board one of its test trains to Euston ahead of the first blockade, which is scheduled for Sunday November 17.

This will be followed by a three-day closure of Paddington between December 27 and 29 – meaning no trains in and out of Paddington for a five-day period, due to the shutdown on Christmas day and Boxing day

There will be ongoing closures over each subsequent festive period, including an 18-day closure in 2028 that will also affect the January return to work for thousands of staff.

The work at Old Oak Common will move the existing Great Western main line north through the new station, enabling HS2 passengers arriving from Birmingham to board a GWR, Lizzie line or Heathrow Express service.

It is understood that, under current plans, all three operators will have all their services stop at Old Oak Common.

In addition, Old Oak Common will become the western terminus station for a number of Elizabeth line trains that currently terminate at Paddington.

This is to ensure HS2 passengers have a high frequency of trains to take them into central London prior to the HS2 station opening at Euston – currently envisaged around 2040, assuming the Government can strike a deal with the private sector to build the promised station at Euston.

It has also emerged that discussions have begun about opening a new station at the northern end of the Old Oak Common site, to provide a better connection for London Overground passengers.

At present, Willesden Junction is a 15-minute walk from Old Oak Common – meaning the lack of an interchange with the Overground or Bakerloo line Tube services.

GWR also considered running its long-distance trains, which are typically nine or 10 carriages long, into Waterloo but found that Euston was a better option, especially in terms of platform space.

The bi-mode Hitachi trains have to switch to diesel power after Ealing Broadway, where the pantograph is lowered. However the diesel fumes risked setting off the fire alarms at Waterloo, it is understood.

At Euston, GWR will operate from platforms 14, 15, and 16 on the western side of the station.

When GWR is using Euston, it means the will be used by the UK’s two sleeper trains – the Night Riviera to Cornwall and the Caledonian Sleeper to Scotland.

GWR operations director Richard Rowland said it planned to replicate its Paddington services at Euston as far as possible, with customer services staff, a helpdesk and the use of the first class lounge. GWR is also ensuring its app and wifi operate as normal at Euston.

Mr Rowland said that the new route into Euston could be utilised at other times, should additional HS2 closures be required.

He said: “All the major blockades are at Christmas. They range from five days, right through to an 18-day block in 2028. Progressively we will be doing this for longer periods of time.

“We will have an hourly service from the south-west of England – Cornwall, Devon – and an hourly service from South Wales which will go into Euston.

“We will then have a number of trains which will terminate at Reading, and people can connect there, and we will also have a number of trains that go through to Ealing Broadway for the more local journeys. They will be able to connect there on to the London Underground and into London that way.

“One of the reasons we chose Euston was that it was a relatively quick journey in comparison to Paddington. It will just be 15 minutes extra. Euston is set up for intercity customers.

“We will be transporting a little bit of Great Western Railway to Euston. You will see a little bit of green there. It will be moving a little bit of Paddington over to Euston, but that is not as easy as it sounds.”

Passengers will have the option of transferring onto South Western Railway services to Waterloo from Reading.

“We have worked across the industry to make sure that we understand what the passenger flows will be and there will be sufficient trains to make sure people get to where they want to,” Mr Rowland said

GWR has been testing the practicalities of running trains into Euston since March. Train drivers, under the guidance of GBR Freight drivers, divert off the Great Western line at Acton to connect with the West Coast Main Line at Willesden.

The long-distance trains will stop at Ealing Broadway for crew handovers and the lowering of the pantograph, but passengers will not be able to get off, nor will passengers on the platform at Ealing be able to board to travel to Euston.

The line closures at Old Oak Common will also force the temporary closure of GWR’s North Pole train depot.

It is looking to set up a series of mini depots across its network, including at Didcot Railway Centre museum.

One of the long term effects of the station will be after the GW main lines are diverted through the platforms. There will be a permanent 60mph speed limit.  That will add around two minutes to all trains going in and out of Paddington. That will increase if the service is timetabled to call at Old Oak Common. 

It will therefore affect connections across the GWR network. 

Lots of information on what GWR plans to operate during blockades at Old Oak Common over the next few years can be found here:

https://www.gwr.com/travel-information/travel-updates/planned-engineering/oldoakcommon

Yes.  When will that freight be electrified - and how slow is "slow" anyway - gone are the days of loose coupled four wheel wagon.   High speed really isn't needed inwards of Ealing for these services - add a few minutes to the journey and it won't significantly reduce the benefit of the easy links from Euston / St.P  KGX

Stupid question for the future - why just during diversions?   There used to be sleeper services from Kings Cross, and indeed St Pancras before that, to Scotland but they were all centralised on Euston.  Just asking.

On Sunday 30th June GWR ran a Sleeper set from Reading Traincare Depot to London Euston as a test for the upcoming diversions.

Stakeholder/shareholder?!! 

Is it not also the case that the number of (heavy, slow) freight services running via Acton Wells Junction will cause timetabling issues?

I am a bit worried that Go-Op appear to have taken control of grahame's account.

Long term, a GWR link into Euston - with its ten minute walk to St Pancras International and a couple of minutes more to Kings Cross - would make sense.

I am attracted by the idea (sitting In my armchair) of an hourly service Weymouth, Upwey, Dorchester West, Maiden Newton, Chetnole, Yetminster, Thornford, Yeovil Interchange, Yeovil Pen Mill, Castle Cary, Bruton, Frome, Westbury, Trowbridge, Melksham, Chippenham, Royal Wootton Bassett, Swindon, Grove and Wantage, Didcot Parkway, Reading, Hayes and Harlington, Vitus Quercus Venellam and London (Euston).   Connections into that from the whole of the South West and South Wales right up to Worcester and out from that to the Heathrow link at Hayes and to the International link at Euston.

Plenty of work has already been undertaken recently, especially to the 770 axle counters

NR will bring forward planned track work. Axle counters, which are essential to safe signalling, are being fitted with “industry first” monitoring equipment to pre-empt failures. “They are still failing, but they are failing less often. That is a big part of the stabilisation,” said Jones.

Excellent crayonista work there. But... run 'em on to the Hammersmith and City / Metropolitan and terminate 'em at Farringdon. :-)

Mark

Could this, therefore, give the opportunity for a bit of much-needed sorting out of the line, while it is quiet? Unless all engineers are going to be busy at OOC.

That makes perfect sense, as will changing at Reading for the Elizabeth Line if it serves the ultimate destination of the passenger.


Could this, therefore, give the opportunity for a bit of much-needed sorting out of the line, while it is quiet? Unless all engineers are going to be busy at OOC.

I’d much rather take the Euston option. Just 5 miles on the WCML, just over 6 miles as a total diversion, plus there shouldn’t be as much traffic between Reading and Ealing Broadway. 

The line into Waterloo hasn’t been without issues either.

Given the state of the infrastructure between Reading & Paddington, the diversion may well be a welcome improvement in reliability.

I’d much rather prefer taking this route than ‘risk’ using Euston. Time and time again I’m seeing chaos with serious overcrowding at this London termini whenever there’s an issue, which there frequently is, on the west coast mainline.

Waterloo, though a slower route, has more capacity, especially during holiday periods when SWR tend to operate a Saturday timetable.

The thought of now mixing GWR services into Euston to me appears to be a bad idea. Only going to take something minor to go wrong and I can see GWR Euston terminators terminating at Ealing Broadway and Reading, and that’s before we even start talking about shortage of train crew affecting services which usually happens over the Christmas & New Year holidays.

My evidence for the latter is during the Reading blockades how many trains up from the south west ending up terminating at Basingstoke rather than Waterloo or in the case of Bristol & South Wales services, Banbury rather than Paddington?

My advice would be to anyone would be that the timetable may show two GWR services an hour into and out of Euston, but the reality may be something completely different.

Not only that, these direct London trains are liable to be absolutely rammed. Maybe better to use a less busy Reading terminator and change for a SWR service to Waterloo. Slower yes, more reliable yes, likely to be less busy yes.

Extending in route AND I suspect extending in train length.    A 2 car 158 would simply not cope - while Paddington is closed at least, how about the the hourly Swansea to Waterloo IET reversing at Bristol Parkway, and connecting cross platform at Temple Meads with the hourly Taunton to Euston?

About half of GWR’s trains — probably those serving Cornwall — will start or terminate at Reading. Two trains an hour in each direction from Bristol and Wales are expected to use Euston.

Not only that, these direct London trains are liable to be absolutely rammed. Maybe better to use a less busy Reading terminator and change for a SWR service to Waterloo. Slower yes, more reliable yes, likely to be less busy yes.

One of the issues with Waterloo is fuel capacity on the IETs.

This having been on the horizon even in 2021, there's now a real sense of incoherence in the way that the DfT waded in and twisted everyone's arms to discontinue direct Bristol - Waterloo services.

If they were running now there'd be a case for extending them so that once more they covered Cardiff - Bristol - Waterloo travel needs.

Mark

If they were running now there'd be a case for extending them so that once more they covered Cardiff - Bristol - Waterloo travel needs.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/euston-paddington-trains-wales-hs2-delays-old-oak-common-b1167168.html

Inter-city trains between London, the South-West and Wales are expected to be diverted from Paddington to Euston due to track closures for HS2 works.

Great Western Railway is seeking permission to use Euston as its main London terminal for several days before and after Christmas — and potentially on multiple occasions until 2030.

Network Rail is understood to be planning 70 days of festive blockades over the next decade on the route in and out of Paddington — with weekend and late-night closures also expected throughout the year.

The diversions are necessary because work to complete Old Oak Common station in north-west London will require the closure of the main line to Paddington.