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GWR strike next weekend! How to get to Reading from London

We were planning on taking the train from Paddington Station to Reading West next Saturday (9/02) then we have a rental car reserved in Reading to start driving from there. But I see that GWR will be on strike on that day. It looks like a TfL line runs from Paddington to Reading (maybe the Elizabeth Line?) but every time I start to book tickets it then shows that it will be a GWR train. My question is, is there any way to get from London to Reading on Sept. 2nd without using GWR? I hate to think that we might have to take a cab!

Posted by
2442 posts

I am pretty certain that GWR will run some trains between Paddington & Reading though not sure about Reading West.

Posted by
6027 posts

This is what GWR say about their services next Saturday-
A very limited service will run only on the following routes between:

London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads
London Paddington to Oxford
London Paddington to Cardiff via Bristol Parkway
London Paddington to Plymouth (calling Pewsey/Westbury/Castle Cary)
London Paddington to Newbury
London Paddington to Reading/Didcot Parkway
Greenford branch
Slough to Windsor
Maidenhead to Bourne End
Twyford to Henley-on-Thames
Reading to Basingstoke
Didcot to Oxford/Banbury
Newbury to Bedwyn
Reading to Redhill
Cardiff Central to Westbury
Bristol to Plymouth

Reading West is on the Reading to Basingstoke and Reading to Newbury stopping service routes, so there is a service every 30 minutes.

The system defaults to GWR because they are faster, but put Bond Street to Reading into the planners, and you will see that the Elizabeth Line runs from Paddington at 17 and 47 minutes past each hour, so you are OK- you will get to Reading, and thence Reading West.
So both GWR and Elizabeth line are running.