Trains across the West Country still impacted by overhead cable issues in London
Hundreds of passengers were stranded on cold, dark trains on Thursday night
Last updated 8th Dec 2023
Services to and from Paddington station - including across the Great Western Railway network here in the South West - remain disrupted after major disruption on the trains last night (Thurs 7th Dec).
Hundreds of passengers were stranded on dark, cold trains for several hours.
Damage to overhead electric cables in the Ladbroke Grove area of west London at around 6.30pm severely affected Elizabeth line, GWR and Heathrow Express trains to and from Paddington station.
Some passengers reported being stuck for more than three hours while receiving no information from operators.
There's also been major flooding further south of the region, with GWR also advising passengers on some routes 'not to travel' today (8 December) - and it follows disruption earlier this week, with ASLEF union members walking out in their continued dispute with the Government over pay and conditions.
Yesterday, engineers worked through the night to get two of the four lines serving Paddington open for electric trains.
On Friday morning commuters were warned their journeys may be delayed by up to 90 minutes.
Statement from Network Rail
A Network Rail spokesman said: "We are so sorry for the difficult journeys passengers endured on our railway last night and we will be investigating how and why it happened.
"The knock-on effects from last night mean operators will not be able to run a full service from Paddington today and passengers should check before they travel.
"Repairs are ongoing and we hope to have the railway fully open by the weekend."
"It felt like a wartime thing"
Elizabeth line passenger Mike Worrall told the PA news agency it was "the most surreal evening" of his life.
He told how they waited for hours in semi-darkness with little information, before finally being evacuated off the train.
"It was really eerie walking down the railway line in amongst this big crowd of people. It felt like a wartime thing."
As to why the line broke down, Mr Worrall said: "Every day, it's a different excuse.
"It seems to me they opened this whole thing without actually being fit for purpose. If they knew there were infrastructure issues that they needed to work on, why didn't they work on those before? They opened the line and it doesn't work.
"It (goes down) multiple times a week, and it's incredibly frustrating."
He added: "The mayor of London needs to sort it out."
Singer James Blunt and TV presenter Rachel Riley were also affected by the disruption.
Blunt posted on X: "Been stuck somewhere outside Paddington for close to 4 hours now. Out of peanuts and wine", while Riley wrote: "Nearly 4 hours after we got on, we're getting off the Elizabeth line, woohoo!"
The £19 billion Elizabeth line - which opened in May 2022 - uses mainline rail infrastructure west of Paddington.
Paddington services have been repeatedly affected by rail system faults in recent weeks.
Incidents on the Great Western line include four damaged rails discovered in eight days last month.