Major disruption between London Paddington and Heathrow Airport / Reading expected until the end of the day 

Route(s) affected

Elizabeth line between Abbey Wood and Heathrow Terminal 4 / Maidenhead / Reading, and also between Shenfield and Heathrow Terminal 5

All Great Western Railway services to / from London Paddington

Heathrow Express between London Paddington and Heathrow Terminal 5

Description

There has been damage to the overhead electric wires between London Paddington and Heathrow Airport / Reading, disrupting journeys running between these stations.

As a result, trains may be cancelled, delayed by up to 50 minutes or revised.

This is expected to continue until the end of the day.

A visual disruption map video is now available.

Advice for Elizabeth line customers:

Please allow for short notice alterations and platform changes and listen to Elizabeth line station announcements or ask a member of staff for further information.

Acton Main Line, West Ealing, Ealing Broadway, Southall and Hanwell will not be served in the eastbound direction.

To assist you with your journey, you can use your ticket on the following services, at no extra cost:

• Great Western Railway services between London Paddington and Reading (please note, these services are also affected by this incident)

• London Underground via any reasonable route

• South Western Railway between London Waterloo and Reading

• London Buses via any reasonable route

Service alterations:

• Two trains an hour will run between Abbey Wood and Reading (these services will call additionally at Iver)

• Two trains an hour will run between Abbey Wood and Heathrow Terminals 4 / 5

• Services between Shenfield and Heathrow Airport will only run between Shenfield and London Liverpool Street / London Paddington

• Services between Abbey Wood and Maidenhead will be cancelled in full (you should instead use services between Abbey Wood and Reading, which will call at Maidenhead)

Advice for Great Western Railway customers:

To assist you with your journey, you can use your ticket on the following services, at no extra cost:

• Elizabeth line between London Paddington and Reading (please note, these services are also affected by this incident)

• South Western Railway between London Waterloo and Reading, and between Reading and Basingstoke

• Chiltern Railways between Oxford and London Marylebone

• London Underground via any reasonable route

To reduce congestion in the area, Great Western Railway are having to reduce their train service. Some services that normally run between London Paddington and Reading will be revised to either start their journey at Reading, or may terminate at Reading.

If your train is cancelled or starting from Reading, you may travel on either of the two services before, or two services after, your original train. If these are peak services or less flexible, you can still travel with your original ticket, at no extra cost. If your train is being terminated at Reading, you can use your ticket, at no additional cost on the next available service to London Paddington.

Please consider postponing your journey until service returns to normal.

Advice for Heathrow Express customers:

A reduced half hourly service is in operation between London Paddington and Heathrow Terminal 5.

Additional information:

It has been reported that the overhead wires that power trains have been damaged. Specialist engineers have been arranged to attend the location of the fault. If a wide area has been affected, this may be a considerable amount of time. For safety reasons, trains may not be able to run through the affected area as the overhead power is switched off.

Due to the high risk nature of the repair work, it may take some time whilst the fault is dealt with and some services may be diverted around the issue using an alternative line. We will provide you with regular updates and inform you when the line has reopened.

Check before you travel:

You can check your journey using the National Rail Enquiries real-time Journey Planner.

Compensation:

You may be entitled to compensation if you experience a delay in completing your journey today. Please keep your train ticket and make a note of your journey, as both will be required to support any claim.