Overhead line damage causes 48-hour travel chaos for passengers

Train services between London Paddington and Reading have been disrupted while engineers fix damaged overhead electrical wires near Slough. 

Network Rail engineers were making repairs to damaged overhead electrical wires throughout the night to ensure all four lines are able to reopen today.

Disruption will however continue for passengers today with some local stopping services having to start and finish at Reading, where customers can change for onward services. Long distance services will continue to operate as normal.

David Davidson, Network Rail’s interim Western route director, said: “I’d like to apologise to any passengers who have been affected today by the damage to the overhead electrical wires.

“Our engineers have been onsite since first thing this morning (Wednesday) and are working hard to make the repairs as quickly and safely as possible. We will continue working on this overnight so we can reopen the mainline tomorrow. We will need to close this stretch of railway a little earlier than usual tomorrow evening (Thursday evening) to enable our engineers to complete the repairs and reinstate the wires so full services can resume on Friday morning.

“I encourage passengers to check before they travel with their train operator and thank them for their patience and understanding while we complete these repairs.

Rush hour passengers this evening are also being warned of some cancellations to late night trains as Network Rail’s engineers will resume work to reinstate electric power to the wires ready for all services to resume on Friday morning. Those travelling later in the evening should check their journey as some of the last trains will leave earlier.

Heathrow Express services to Heathrow Airport will remain unaffected throughout. Elizabeth line services west of London Paddington will terminate tonight at West Drayton, while services tomorrow night will operate as planned but there will be some cancellations to services to Maidenhead after 22:00.

Passengers can use https://www.gwr.com/ or https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/ to check before they travel.

If you hold a valid single, return, or weekly ticket, you will be able to claim compensation for delays of 15 minutes or more. Please keep your ticket and visit GWR.com/DelayRepay for more information.

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