Old Oak Common/Paddington blockade, December 2024. Service changes, diverts, engineering etc

[whole diary]

[ChrisB]

As I understand those at GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway), all fast trains through OOC^▸ (Old Oak Common (depot)) will stop, as it will lose paths if some do & some don't (from the current timetable). If everything does, then thw whole timetable still works, just 3 mins slower.

[ChrisB]

Paddington trains diverted to Euston at Christmas until 2030 and Elizabeth line services disrupted

Great Western Railway planning festive switch of London terminals when construction work at Old Oak Common temporarily closes rail lines

From thhe Standard

Full details of the Christmas disruption that Great Western Railway and Elizabeth line passengers face until the end of the decade can be revealed.

All rail lines in and out of Paddington will be closed on multiple occasions over the next seven or eight years to enable the mainline and HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)) station at Old Oak Common to be completed.

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) will divert its long-distance trains from Cornwall, Devon and South Wales – and its Night Riveria sleeper train - into Euston, with other services terminating at Reading or Ealing Broadway.

The firm admits it faces a “huge” logistical challenge but was determined to take its passengers direct into central London, though journey times will be about 15 minutes longer. It expects to run a “similar level of service”.

The Elizabeth line – the UK^▸ (United Kingdom)’s busiest rail line, with more than 700,000 passengers a day – will not run between Ealing Broadway and Paddington.

GWR invited the Evening Standard on board one of its test trains to Euston ahead of the first blockade, which is scheduled for Sunday November 17.

This will be followed by a three-day closure of Paddington between December 27 and 29 – meaning no trains in and out of Paddington for a five-day period, due to the shutdown on Christmas day and Boxing day

There will be ongoing closures over each subsequent festive period, including an 18-day closure in 2028 that will also affect the January return to work for thousands of staff.

The work at Old Oak Common will move the existing Great Western main line north through the new station, enabling HS2 passengers arriving from Birmingham to board a GWR, Lizzie line or Heathrow Express service.

It is understood that, under current plans, all three operators will have all their services stop at Old Oak Common.

In addition, Old Oak Common will become the western terminus station for a number of Elizabeth line trains that currently terminate at Paddington.

This is to ensure HS2 passengers have a high frequency of trains to take them into central London prior to the HS2 station opening at Euston – currently envisaged around 2040, assuming the Government can strike a deal with the private sector to build the promised station at Euston.

It has also emerged that discussions have begun about opening a new station at the northern end of the Old Oak Common site, to provide a better connection for London Overground passengers.

At present, Willesden Junction is a 15-minute walk from Old Oak Common – meaning the lack of an interchange with the Overground or Bakerloo line Tube services.

GWR also considered running its long-distance trains, which are typically nine or 10 carriages long, into Waterloo but found that Euston was a better option, especially in terms of platform space.

The bi-mode Hitachi trains have to switch to diesel power after Ealing Broadway, where the pantograph is lowered. However the diesel fumes risked setting off the fire alarms at Waterloo, it is understood.

At Euston, GWR will operate from platforms 14, 15, and 16 on the western side of the station.

When GWR is using Euston, it means the will be used by the UK’s two sleeper trains – the Night Riviera to Cornwall and the Caledonian Sleeper to Scotland.

GWR operations director Richard Rowland said it planned to replicate its Paddington services at Euston as far as possible, with customer services staff, a helpdesk and the use of the first class lounge. GWR is also ensuring its app and wifi operate as normal at Euston.

Mr Rowland said that the new route into Euston could be utilised at other times, should additional HS2 closures be required.

He said: “All the major blockades are at Christmas. They range from five days, right through to an 18-day block in 2028. Progressively we will be doing this for longer periods of time.

“We will have an hourly service from the south-west of England – Cornwall, Devon – and an hourly service from South Wales which will go into Euston.

“We will then have a number of trains which will terminate at Reading, and people can connect there, and we will also have a number of trains that go through to Ealing Broadway for the more local journeys. They will be able to connect there on to the London Underground and into London that way.

“One of the reasons we chose Euston was that it was a relatively quick journey in comparison to Paddington. It will just be 15 minutes extra. Euston is set up for intercity customers.

“We will be transporting a little bit of Great Western Railway to Euston. You will see a little bit of green there. It will be moving a little bit of Paddington over to Euston, but that is not as easy as it sounds.”

Passengers will have the option of transferring onto South Western Railway services to Waterloo from Reading.

“We have worked across the industry to make sure that we understand what the passenger flows will be and there will be sufficient trains to make sure people get to where they want to,” Mr Rowland said

GWR has been testing the practicalities of running trains into Euston since March. Train drivers, under the guidance of GBR^▸ (Great British Railways) Freight drivers, divert off the Great Western line at Acton to connect with the West Coast Main Line at Willesden.

The long-distance trains will stop at Ealing Broadway for crew handovers and the lowering of the pantograph, but passengers will not be able to get off, nor will passengers on the platform at Ealing be able to board to travel to Euston.

The line closures at Old Oak Common will also force the temporary closure of GWR’s North Pole train depot.

It is looking to set up a series of mini depots across its network, including at Didcot Railway Centre museum.

Placed in this board as it affects all routes into Paddington

[Chris from Nailsea]

It does indeed, ChrisB: I've therefore merged it into the existing topic on this subject here. 

[ChrisB]

...I spent minutes looking for that too!

[infoman]

18 day closure in year 2028,just can't believe its going to take that long considering how long construction work has already been going on.

Sunday 17 november 2024,is the day England will be in action at Wembley against Ireland with a 5pm kick off.

[ChrisB]

Thanks for that - so anyone looking for a EUS trip out & back might travel during the game as loadings will be light(er)

[bobm]

Or there won’t be a driver. 

[eightonedee]

The long-distance trains will stop at Ealing Broadway for crew handovers and the lowering of the pantograph, but passengers will not be able to get off, nor will passengers on the platform at Ealing be able to board to travel to Euston.

Presumably there must be some good operating reason (to minimise stopping time there?) as an Ealing Broadway stop for in-bound changes for the District and Central Line would seem a good further option for those unable to travel to Paddington?

[Electric train]

The long-distance trains will stop at Ealing Broadway for crew handovers and the lowering of the pantograph, but passengers will not be able to get off, nor will passengers on the platform at Ealing be able to board to travel to Euston.

Presumably there must be some good operating reason (to minimise stopping time there?) as an Ealing Broadway stop for in-bound changes for the District and Central Line would seem a good further option for those unable to travel to Paddington?

The reason ............ to prevent the inevitable chaos, Ealing Broadway is a busy station at the best of times adding in embarking and disembarking passengers on diverted services will just delay every service.

Just wondering if the diverted services to / from Euston will use platforms 1 & 2 and the Elizabeth line using 3 & 4

[Mark A]

Reading all this, fond thoughts for that pre-privatisation was it 3 a day regional railways service skipping both Westbury and Salisbury and reliably timed at just 2 hours 10 minutes between Waterloo and Bath Spa.

Mark

[plymothian]

The Paddington rush can be bad, but the Euston one is worse!

[TaplowGreen]

The Paddington rush can be bad, but the Euston one is worse!

Shhhhhh! Hendy might hear you! 

[stuving]

There was a proving run by an 802 into Euston last Friday (3Q81 0930 from Reading, 3Q82 1109 return), perhaps a final one as press were invited along. IanVisits reported on this, though this version does not match other sources. For one thing it describes gauging as a major reason for it, though that must have been done earlier, and there was that test run in March that isn't mentioned here. Also, it says they stopped at Ealing Broadway to switch to diesel and collect a pilot, whereas the data feeds (via RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website)) say that happened at Acton Main Line. On the way back it appears the train only stopped - to drop the pilot? - on the goods line past AML!

IanVisits also says that Waterloo will not after all be used because the platforms are too narrow at their outer ends for the ramps to be deployed. Ealing Broadway will also be used, and that and the  Euston services will (in RTT) be using P1&2. Last week's runs used P3&4 (as will those on Sunday 17 November) but then they ran on the reliefs throughout.

[stuving]

There's a piece in today's Times headlined "six years of disruption as HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)) works wreak havoc". It says they have seen a presentation given by GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) and NR^» (Network Rail - home page) to MPs^▸ (Member of Parliament) whose constituencies will be affected.

Most of the content is rehashed stuff known already, but it also says, for the six years of disruption, "up to a third of weekend and overnight services leaving Paddington will be axed, affecting journeys to Heathrow as well as south Wales, the Cotswold and the west of England". It goes on the explain that at those times only two of four tracks will be in use, allowing 14-15 paths per hour instead of 48-56.

Now at the top end of what that weaselly "up to" suggests, losing a third of trains every night and weekend might be dramatic. At the other end it's just what already happens for routine engineering work on some nights and weekends. However, nothing in the article says where on that scale the effects will be. Maybe that wasn't written in the presentation.

Note that the GWR information on engineering works specifically for Old Oak station already includes most Sundays until Christmas, summarised as:

Fewer train services will run between London Paddington and Reading on the following dates:

    Sundays 8, 15, 22 and 29 September
    Sundays 6, 13, 20 and 27 October
    Sunday 24 November
    Sundays 8 and 15 December

Further impact is expected on Sundays from January to May 2025.

The effects on each day are in GWR's usual summaries for "Planned engineering", and a lot of that, even at of Paddington, is for other reasons, not work at Old Oak.

[Noggin]

I wonder if it's a cunning ploy to keep GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) their franchise for the duration of this Parliament? That way they get the heat for the delays, not the state operator ;-)