Thames Valley infrastructure problems causing disruption elsewhere - 2025

[whole diary]

[TaplowGreen]

A special treat for Easter!

(National Rail, generally more reliable and up to date, warning of disruption till 1800)

Cancellations to services between London Paddington and Reading

Following a points failure between London Paddington and Reading some lines have now reopened.

Train services running to and from these stations are returning to normal but some services will still be cancelled, delayed or revised. Disruption is expected until 16:00 17/04

[Timmer]

Due to a fault with the signalling system at Twyford fewer trains are able to run. Disruption is expected until 21:00 21/04.
Train services between London Paddington and Reading may be cancelled, delayed or revised.
Customer Advice
We apologise for the disruption to your journey today.

Due to a signalling fault in the Twyford area, trains are unable to operate on the Great Western Mainline. Trains will be moved to stations where possible and hold there pending a fix to the signalling.

This is causing all kinds of problems for those returning to London following the Easter weekend with trains, particularly those coming up from the Southwest, terminating well short of London at Westbury, Taunton, Exeter and one train up from Penzance only getting as far as Plymouth!

[Timmer]

Unsurprisingly, Exeter to Waterloo trains are shown as ‘full and standing’. Feel for those further up the line who will have absolutely no hope of boarding.

[Timmer]

UPDATE:

Cancellations to services between London Paddington and Reading
Due to a fault with the signalling system at Twyford fewer trains are able to run. Disruption is expected until 23:59 21/04.
Train services between London Paddington and Reading may be cancelled, delayed or revised.
Customer Advice
We apologise for the disruption to your journey today.

Due to a significant signalling fault in the Twyford area, trains are unable to operate on the Great Western Mainline.

Trains will be moved to stations where possible and hold there pending a fix to the signalling. Network Rail teams are on site at Thames Valley Signalling Centre and at Reading, working to resolve the issue.

This is affecting train services from Reading to Basingstoke, the West Country via Newbury Westbury and Taunton, South Wales, Cheltenham Spa and Oxford and the North Cotswolds.

Sounds like a major outage this afternoon. Nothing is leaving Paddington High Level other than the Heathrow Express

[ChrisB]

Till the end of the day....

[Chris from Nailsea]

See also the 'chaos at Cardiff Central' incident: https://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=30170.0

Not a good Easter Monday on the railways. 

[UstiImmigrunt]

UPDATE:

Cancellations to services between London Paddington and Reading
Due to a fault with the signalling system at Twyford fewer trains are able to run. Disruption is expected until 23:59 21/04.
Train services between London Paddington and Reading may be cancelled, delayed or revised.
Customer Advice
We apologise for the disruption to your journey today.

Due to a significant signalling fault in the Twyford area, trains are unable to operate on the Great Western Mainline.

Trains will be moved to stations where possible and hold there pending a fix to the signalling. Network Rail teams are on site at Thames Valley Signalling Centre and at Reading, working to resolve the issue.

This is affecting train services from Reading to Basingstoke, the West Country via Newbury Westbury and Taunton, South Wales, Cheltenham Spa and Oxford and the North Cotswolds.

Sounds like a major outage this afternoon. Nothing is leaving Paddington High Level other than the Heathrow Express

It doesn't have to be a major outage to stop all departures. The stranded train policy is brought in. Wherever possible trains are stopped in platforms and don't move until the problem is resolved. This is to prevent passengers self evacuating onto open railway lines.
There was a rule book alteration many years ago, a new reason for a driver to be authorised to pass a signal at danger, proceed into a platform where another train is stopped, think for example Keysham or Nailsea.

Today's 1530 BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI) but BTM is a commonly used alternative)) Paddington had a delight 2 hours at Chips and Ham, 1530 Paddington WSM is currently 222 mins late!

[TaplowGreen]

"South Western Railway ticket acceptance is now revoked, due their operations being severely affected by a fatality at Putney.

Chiltern Railways ticket acceptance is now revoked"

Given that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) Twitter packs up and goes home at 1900 these days, what help/advice is available to travellers on a day when once again the decreptitude of the infrastructure between Reading & Paddington causes a complete meltdown?

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/2044029/paddington-station-live-rail-train-cancelled

[Timmer]

Given that GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) Twitter packs up and goes home at 1900 these days, what help/advice is available to travellers on a day when once again the decreptitude of the infrastructure between Reading & Paddington causes a complete meltdown?

Not defending GWR here, but I don’t think there was much advice they could offer. Almost the entire service far and wide across the GWR network was shot to pieces because of this major infrastructure failure this afternoon.

Thoughts with the passengers and staff who are still stranded this evening. This really was a bad one on such a major travel day.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Fair comments, Timmer. 

We had a weekend guest here in Nailsea who was inconvenienced on her journey home this afternoon by the emergency bridge work near Cardiff Central.

Altogether, not a good Bank Holiday weekend for the railways.