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BIG changes coming at Paddington Stn - Elizabeth Line and GWR move to Euston at times through 2030

There is so much in this story on the big changes at Paddington for GWR and the Elizabeth Line from November that I will quote an article in the Evening Standard today. If in late autumn or winter until 2030 and planning to use Euston or Paddington Stations, GWR or Elizabeth Line, please read this.

quote:

"New HS2 station: Paddington trains diverted to Euston at Christmas until 2030 and Elizabeth line services disrupted

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.

... quote continued in first reply ... out of characters

Posted by
33775 posts

concluding the above quote:

"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."

... end quote

Posted by
7133 posts

Well, this will be an experience I could have done without.

Thank you for the information.

Posted by
16240 posts

So, Nigel, how will all these changes affect the Elizabeth Line out of Heathrow and into central and eastern London? And vice-versa.

Posted by
5453 posts

I struggle to remember the last time at Christmas & the New Year when services on the GWML actually were normal or even close to it. For over a decade this was for construction & installation of the Elizabeth line and there have more recently been improvements to the section of older electrification to make it more robust & other maintenance in this period. There may have been a year or 2 when the disruption wasn't as extensive.

Posted by
7763 posts

Heathrow Express will not run at all on the full closure dates of 16 and 17 November and 25 to 29 December (and all such subsequent dates, which are to be announced).
On the other Sunday part closure dates (starting tomorrow 8 September) it will run a half hourly service- 8, 15, 22 and 29 September, 6, 13, 20 and 27 October, 3 and 24 November, 1, 8, 15 and 22 December;
then in 2025-
2, 9, 16 and 23 February (with late starts at 0720 as well on each date),
2, 9, 16 and 23 March (with late starts at 0720 on each date),

That is as far out as the Calendar goes out currently, but the disruption will doubtless continue after that.

The Elizabeth Line will also not run on full closure dates as far as Paddington and Central London- service patterns to be confirmed, but can be expected to run as far as Ealing Broadway for Central Line and District Line connections into London.

Posted by
1377 posts

The changes are only happening for limited periods over Christmas. Most travellers won’t be affected. Make sure you read the information carefully. Travel at Christmas is always a nightmare anyway because of engineering works.

Posted by
7914 posts

Nigel, thanks for the information! Very good to know.

And Helen, thanks for reinforcing that it will only affect Christmas travel. I did admit that I was a little confused about that (which doesn't take much). :-)

Posted by
4093 posts

Wow, great information.

We had our LHR to Stratford Elizabeth line stop at Paddington one day last summer and had to scramble with our jet lagged brains and toting luggage through very crowded platforms at Paddington. I must say the one staff person understandably wasn’t in a mood to answer questions and just opened a gate and waved people through. We took so long walking underground and waiting on crowded platforms we exceeded our time allotment for our journey and were charged ab extra amount. I hope they’ve factored this into the slightly extra journey time by interrupting the Elizabeth line. We had to appeal and some money was refunded.

Posted by
7763 posts

This is not just Christmas. Over the next 5 years there are expected to be an estimated 70 days of full closure of Paddington, so those can not all mathematically happen at Christmas each year.
The expectation would be that it will affect many of the public holiday (Bank Holiday) periods in those 5 years.

Posted by
1377 posts

I just didn’t want people to read the headline only and think that this was something that was a permanent change. The main point is that it is unlikely to affect most people but important to know that it’s a possibility, especially around Christmas.

Posted by
7914 posts

The main point is that it is unlikely to affect most people but important to know that it’s a possibility, especially around Christmas.

That's what I took from it. Still good to keep an eye open for this, though.

Posted by
33775 posts

the HS2 boondoggle causes mayhem and confusion all over the country, this is just one more in their huuuge trail of carnage.

First one to make a significant inconvenience to London tourists though.

Sorry to confused travelers.

My money is on more of this diversion than the many already announced - we'll see in due course.

From a purely selfish point of view, I'm looking forward to seeing GWR trains parked up at Euston. After all we have so much excess capacity between Wembley and Euston, eh? (wink emoji, satire emoji)

I am making no political statement

Posted by
626 posts

Goodness I'm thankful for this forum. I've worked around all kinds of issues I wouldn't have known about until it was too late if not for all of you. And now this one. If I understand the additional info offered by isn31c, it looks like I may need to use another line to get from the Sloan Square station to Heathrow on December 8. Is that right? I think I can take the Piccadilly line from Knightsbridge and that will not be effected, correct?

Posted by
7763 posts

if you are actually starting from Sloane Square you could take the District line to Baron's Court, Hammersmith or Acton Town, walk a few steps across the platform, then the Piccadilly.

But whether to go to Knightsbridge for the direct Pic line is a personal preference.

If it was me staying at Sloane Square, on a day when the Pic line is taking almost all the Heathrow rail traffic I would probably walk down to Victoria Coach Station and use National Express Bus to Heathrow every half hour. VCS is closer than Knightsbridge to Sloane Square.

That's an old trick I picked up years ago, when going to Church on the Square.

The other option which should be really quiet (famous last words) is the District line from Sloane Square to it's terminus at Ealing Broadway, then the Elizabeth Line (which is starting from there on those closure dates) to Heathrow. Check you board an EB train at Sloane Square rather than a Richmond or Wimbledon train.

Posted by
626 posts

Thanks isn31c! I'll be staying sort of between Sloan Square and Knightsbridge, so it probably makes most sense, but it's definitely good to have options!

Posted by
18 posts

This information is so helpful-- my family arrives on Sunday Dec. 22nd and will head back to Heathrow on the 30th... it's looking like our best bet to get to our accommodations might just be the Piccadilly Line; it may take longer, but at least we will avoid all the headaches with Paddington Station. We've taken the Heathrow Express twice before; seems as if it may be wise to choose differently this time, even with the Sunday schedule. I suppose we will wait to see about the return trip on the 30th!

Posted by
5 posts

How will we get from London to Oxford during this time when trains will not be using Paddington Station? And will the Heathrow Express not be used during this time?

Posted by
5453 posts

How will we get from London to Oxford during this time when trains will not be using Paddington Station?

Marylebone (Chiltern services)

And will the Heathrow Express not be used during this time?

No service.

Posted by
7763 posts

@ srepoley-

The Heathrow Express will not be operating at all during the full closure dates.

To Oxford you either take the Chiltern Line trains from London Marylebone, or (if you wish to stay on the Great Western route) take the Central Line or District Line tube train from Central London to Ealing Broadway. There you change onto a Great Western shuttle train to Reading, then change onto a shuttle train at Reading for Oxford.
The Chiltern trains can be expected to be much busier than normal- although they intend to run some extra trains and for other trains to be longer than normal to handle the extra traffic (their trains to Aylesbury are cancelled to provide the extra train cars for Oxford).

When you change from tube to main line train there are toilets at Ealing Broadway Station.

Or take the Oxford Tube high quality, high frequency bus from Buckingham Palace Road, outside Victoria Railway Station.