Friday 8 December and Saturday 9 December HEX and Elizabeth Line to Heathrow

Live information: BBC is reporting Elizabeth Line open with delays.

Transport for London (TfL) reporting SEVERE delays to Heathrow and SEVERE delays through London as knockon from last night.

Heathrow Express live info:

(projected all day today)

Due to an ongoing incident, Heathrow Express services on Friday 8
December may be impacted. We advise passengers to allow extra time for
their journey and apologise for any inconvenience caused.

From London Paddington:

Services are departing at 25 and 55 minutes past the hour.

From Heathrow Terminal 5:

Services are departing at 12 and 42 minutes past the hour.

From Heathrow Central:

Services are departing at 17 and 47 minutes past the hour.

Great Western say that no services at all will run to and from Paddington until at least 12 noon.

Real Time trains (which does what it's name suggests) tells me that nothing is moving. As of 0729 1 HEX train has so far run at 0525 to Heathrow but did not return. And the 0544 diesel train to Greenford ran, but terminated at Ealing Broadway. So far NO Elizabeth line service has run through Central London- from the east they are turning round at Stratford International or Liverpool Street.

A 0547 Elizabeth line train tried to run to Reading from Paddington but turned back at Old Oak Common.

The BBC report makes it sound like an absolute nightmare last night.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67655656

The line has re-opened at 0820, with services now beginning to run in both directions again, but it will take most of the day to get staff and trains back into place, so disruption can be expected to continue for several hours.

GWR update -

At the moment we're running in a contingency plan between Reading and London Paddington which results in a much reduced service for both Great Western Railway and MTR Elizabeth line. To summarise there will be: cancellations to Oxford - London Paddington services; Didcot Parkway to London Paddington services operating between Didcot and Reading only; Newbury to London Paddington services operating between Newbury and Reading only; cancellations to some London Paddington to Cardiff Central services (Swansea services still running); cancellations to some Bristol Temple Meads to London Paddington services; cancellations to some Heathrow Express services. We will endeavour to run all other long-distance services where we can though due to the nature of the disruption we've experienced, recover is going to take considerable time whilst we get trains and crew into the correct positions across the network. This is of course further hindered by the fact we're in Industrial Action today.

As a result of the above alterations to GWR services, our customers are advised that if choosing to travel towards London Paddington this morning, please be prepared to change trains at Reading. Note below the ticket acceptance agreements with other Train Operating Companies (TOCs) that may assist you in completing your journey this morning.

Please note that you will be able to use your tickets dated for today (08/12/2023) on services tomorrow Saturday 9th December.

Chiltern Railways services will be accepting Great Western Railway customers until further notice between London Marylebone and Oxford.
South Western Railway services are accepting Great Western Railway customers until further notice between London Waterloo and Reading.
London Underground services are accepting Great Western Railway customers until further notice between London Paddington - London Marylebone - London Waterloo.
West Midlands Railway are accepting Great Western Railway customers until further notice between Worcester Shrub Hill and Birmingham New Street.

Avanti West Coast are accepting Great Western Railway customers until further notice between Birmingham New Street and London Euston.

Also note there is a line closure between Exeter and Plymouth due to flooding at Totnes- no rail replacement-use local bus routes.; also flooding Liskeard to Looe- that line also closed.

There is also a reduced service on the Elizabeth line, but at Heathrow this is only going to T2/3 & 4. Change at T2/3 for T5 on the Express.

Elizabeth Line services to T5 restarted at 5pm on Friday, but HEX remains on a 1/2 hourly service.

All lines into Paddington have now re-opened, but GWR are still running a thinned out service for the rest of Friday.

There is still repair work needed to the OHLE so it seems likely that disruption will continue into Saturday. Check before travel on Saturday morning.

Also the Plymouth to Exeter line re-opened at about 3pm.

The Looe line remains closed with rail tickets valid on local bus #73 until the line can re-open.

repair work needed to the OHLE

translating from railwayese to English - repair work needed to the overhead electric wires which power the trains

Problems do still persist, as expected, on Saturday morning- still a 1/2 hourly HEX which is continuing to encounter delays in the area of the incident, and still ongoing cancellations and delays on GWR services with certain services still turning at Reading.

Day 3 of disruption- no trains out of Paddington - GWR/HEX/Elizabeth Line currently due to another (different) incident with the overhead wires- check before travel today as to when this is resolved, but disruption is likely for a number of hours.
From the east Elizabeth line is terminating at Paddington.

Try using South Western trains out of Waterloo for Reading if the issue persists and Chiltern from Marylebone for Oxford.