Great Western Coffee Shop

Does anyone know how much it is to leave a small suitcase at the Paddington Left baggage facility for about 6 hours?

Better to call them directly.

020 7262 0344

Paddington's is run by the Excess Baggage Company.

Cheers mate :)

It's about a fiver I seem to remember.

What I have yet to work out is, if you've arrived at London as your final destination and decide retrospectively to leave your bags for a while, how do you get back through the (newly installed) ticket barriers across platforms 12 to 15 in order to reach the Left Luggage facility?

(we are assuming for the purposes of illustration that your ticket to London has already been gobbled by the barrier machines on exit)

When you leave luggage they give you the receipt, show the receipt at the barrier to show your collecting and you will be allowed through the barrier.

Thanks, Ollie, though that wasn't actually my question.

What if you have already passed through the barriers, and THEN decide you want to go back and leave your stuff at left luggage?

You won't have a train ticket, and you won't have a luggage receipt either.

The process is called speaking ie talk to the person on the barrier where I suspect they will let you through

Although putting left luggage behind the ticket barriers probably isn't the best. Surely that's going to create extra work for the members of staff who are working at the barriers?

Also what do the owners of the coffee place inside the barriers think? I do wonder if they have lost trade..

Having said that I have seen someone let through to just use the cashpoint which is also there.. I do then wonder whether it might be quite easy to still board a train with no ticket at busy times of the day..

What about the Underground entrance by the coffee stall  on the corner of the cab road is that in front of or behind the barrier?

If it's behind you could come off 12, 13, 14 and walk down tunnel and up steps to Prade Street without passing a barrier.

^6.50 per item for 24 hours

You have to go through the barrier to get to the underground entrance.

Fooled again I thought I'd found a way off station without going through the barrier.

If you are referring to the bakerloo line entrance then no the barrier doesn't block that.
If you are going to put your luggage there, then as mentioned above just tell the barrier staff you need to leave your luggage and you will get let through.

Just arrive on platforms 1, 8 or 9 - problem solved!

Funnily enough the last time I used Paddington last Saturday on a fast from Slough we arrived in 9, we then went to the Bakerloo to find the barriers open with a sign saying don't touch in Oysters, same at Waterloo LUL staion.

No barriers at Waterloo so boarded Kingston loop train alighting at Teddington no staff.
 

Well yes, there was a major failure of the Oyster Card system last Sat morning - made all the news. Loads of Oysters didn't work afterwards, if you had tried to use them during the failure.

^6.50 up to 24hrs, no problems with getting through the gates (I couldn't be bothered to dig out my Gate Pass), and deposit/collection of bag was quite painless.

Thanks, John!

Yes, I was in London last Monday, and they were apparently still resolving issues there, even then - extra staff at Paddington to deal with queries, big posters giving information, etc.

Details from the BBC website - see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7503197.stm - but that's probably enough from me on this one!

C.  ;D