Thames Valley infrastructure problems causing disruption elsewhere - 2025

[whole diary]

[TaplowGreen]

Getting ridiculous now......time for the digit to be removed from the orifice and the root cause addressed.....

Cancellations to services between London Paddington and Reading

Due to a points failure between London Paddington and Reading some lines are blocked.

Train services running to and from these stations may be cancelled, delayed or revised. Disruption is expected until 15:30 25/02.

[Oxonhutch]

I do wonder exactly keeps failing. There are many components associated with points that are not necessarily part of the mechanical points themselves. Is it detection? Track circuit sytems?

[NickB]

Points failure at Slough this morning.
From the rerouting I suspect it’s on the main line

[TaplowGreen]

Points failure at Slough this morning.
From the rerouting I suspect it’s on the main line

Yep..........

Cancellations to services between Reading and London Paddington
Due to a points failure between Reading and London Paddington some lines are blocked.

Train services running to and from these stations will be cancelled, delayed or terminated at and started back from Reading. Disruption is expected until 11:00 28/02.

Customer Advice
-
We are sorry for the disruption to your journey today, due to a points failure in the Slough area, the high speed lines are blocked. This means our high speed long distance trains and other operators local stopping trains are having to share the same lines.

[TaplowGreen]

Hard to believe I know but yep, here we go again (from National Rail this time)

Services at Slough

Description
A points failure at Slough means that some lines are blocked.

As a result, services at this station may be cancelled, delayed or revised.

Disruption is expected until 11:00.

[TaplowGreen]

From National Rail - Journeycheck still asleep.

Route(s) affected
between Ealing Broadway and Slough

Description
Overrunning engineering works between Ealing Broadway and Hayes & Harlington means that some lines between between these stations are blocked. As a result, trains running through these stations will be cancelled or delayed by up to 10 minutes.

Trains are currently unable to run between Ealing Broadway and London Paddington.

Disruption is expected until 08:15.

[TaplowGreen]

Cancellations to services between Slough and Twyford

Due to a fault with the signalling system between Slough and Twyford all lines are blocked.
Train services running through these stations may be cancelled or delayed. Disruption is expected until 05:00 05/03.

Customer Advice
Due to a complete loss of signalling between Slough and Twyford no trains can run.

We're sorry for the delay to your journey.

We will update this message with more information when we have it.

[TaplowGreen]

Breathtakingly hopeless...............

Cancellations to services between London Paddington and Reading

Due to a fault with the signalling system between Slough and Twyford all lines are blocked. Disruption is expected until 09:00 05/03.

Train services between London Paddington and Reading will be cancelled.

Customer Advice
Due to a fault on the signalling system between Slough and Twyford, the trains that run from London Paddington to Reading in both directions are unable to leave the depot. This means we have had to suspend the train service.

[Surrey 455]

The Evening Standard reported that

Some trains were re-routed to London Waterloo.

Did that really happen?

[ChrisB]

Check Real Time Trains?

[Wizard]

The Evening Standard reported that

Some trains were re-routed to London Waterloo.

Did that really happen?

Not a chance. Passengers were via SWR^» (South Western Railway - about), the trains themselves weren’t.

[nickswift99]

Except passengers struggled to go that way either. Passenger taken ill (which was unfortunate) meant that there were no trains to Waterloo from 0609 until 0728. I was lucky yesterday - didn't need to be in London until later so was able to get one of the first fasts from Reading at about 0835 - Reading station was pretty much deserted.

[TaplowGreen]

Reading elsewhere that TfL^» (Transport for London - about) are seriously unimpressed with the constant failures between Paddington and Reading (points, signal, track etc) which are affecting the Elizabeth Line and are taking a robust line with NR^» (Network Rail - home page) at a senior level, asking for details to be set out as to what is being done to address it.

A refreshing contrast with the apparently rather more quiescent GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) it would seem.

Whether it'll have any effect of course remains to be seen!

[ChrisB]

TfL^» (Transport for London - about) are a direct customer of Network Rail

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) are a customer of the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about), and a secondary customer of Network Rail of which Network Rail is a get-out clause within their DfT contract.

[a-driver]

TfL^» (Transport for London - about) have publicly stated how un8mpressed they are with Network Rail previously. 

Their public statement of unhappiness clearly achieved a lot!