Great Western Coffee Shop

Which May bank holiday are we talking about?

And trains to Heathrow - or buses or cabs or nothing?

HC and HX are pretty well as normal on 5th and 7th, just no Hanwell or West Ealing calls and some changes late and early. Nothing on 6th, though - and the official answer is "Piccadilly"

And for those who bought HEX & HConn tickets in advance these wont be valid on the Piccadilly Line will they? Another rip-off Britain scam?

It was shocking that the final timetable for services on the 5th of May between South Wales and London via Bath was finalized just yesterday! There's still gaps in services appearing on this line on Bank Holiday Monday as well.

Services between the South West and London via Bristol were available quite sometime back.

What is going on at Network Rail that they can't even finalize a timetable now just even a few days out?

Cancellations to services between Swindon and London Paddington

Due to a shortage of train crew between Swindon and London Paddington fewer trains are able to run.
Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled or diverted to and from Reading. London Paddington will not be served. Disruption is expected until the end of the day.

Customer Advice

It has not been possible to resource sufficient additional road transport to operate between Reading and London due to other replacement road transport commitments. Therefore, the following advice stands for customers travelling to or from London:

Travel towards London Paddington:

A limited, non-stop train service will operate between Swindon and London Paddington. These will principally be services that originated in the West of England, Devon and Cornwall. These services are anticipated to be exceptionally busy; customers are strongly advised to only travel on these services if they already hold a reservation.

The majority of train services originally advertised to operate South Wales - Swindon - London Paddington will be diverted from Swindon and terminate at Reading. They will not serve Oxford or London Paddington.

Upon arrival at Reading customers are advised to travel on the XX05 Reading to Basingstoke service; and change at Basingstoke for South Western Railways' XX43 or XX57 Basingstoke to London Waterloo service.

The journey time from Reading to London Waterloo; including changing trains at Basingstoke is approximately 90 minutes.

South Western Railway have kindly agreed to accept GWR tickets for these journeys.
Cross Country have also kindly agreed to accept GWR tickets for journeys between Reading and Basingstoke.

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Travel from London Paddington:

A limited, non-stop service will operate between London Paddington and Swindon. These services will principally continue to destinations in the West of England, Devon and Cornwall. These services are anticipated to be exceptionally busy; customers are strongly advised to only travel on these services if they already hold a reservation.

The majority of train services originally advertised to operate London Paddington - Swindon - South Wales will be amended to start from Reading. After the departure of the 07:57 London Paddington to Swansea there will be no direct services from London to South Wales.

Customers travelling from London to South Wales are advised to make their way to London Waterloo and travel on the XX39 South Western Railways' service from London Waterloo to Poole, and change at Basingstoke for the XX36 Great Western Railway service from Basingstoke to Reading; or the XX49 Cross Country service from Basingstoke to Manchester Piccadilly; then change at Reading for onward rail connections to South Wales departing Reading at XX20.

The journey time from London Waterloo to Reading; including change trains at Basingstoke is approximately 80 minutes.

South Western Railway and Cross Country have both kindly agreed to accept GWR tickets for these journeys.

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Additional Information
Due to high volumes of engineering works across the country; delays have been encountered in the Railway Industry producing timetables for this bank holiday weekend (Saturday 5th to Monday 7th May).

As a result, this has affected Great Western Railway's ability to prepare, plan and run many of the train services initially advertised to run over the weekend. Insufficient train crew are available to meet the demands of the timetable originally planned to run. It has also impacted the quality of information available on some journey planners used by customers.

Customers travelling between Swindon and Reading, and Swindon and London Paddington on Monday should only travel if absolutely necessary. Customers who decide not to travel on these routes will be eligible for a full refund of their fares; and should visit out refunds page for further details.

Further Information
An update will follow within the next 2 hours.
Last Updated:07/05/2018 05:18