Commuter CHAOS as ALL services to and from London Paddington CANCELLED

Trains are unable to run between London Paddington and Slough or Heathrow Airport after overhead electric wires were “severely” damaged at Ealing on Tuesday night.

Many trains became stranded between Paddington and Reading due to a loss of power supply on Wednesday morning.

Network Rail said it expected to open two of the four train lines by midday, but warned disruption would last until the end of the day.

Services in and out of Bristol have also been suspended.

Great Western Railway (GWR) added that a reduced timetable would impact most mainline routes to and from Paddington.

The operator said: “Owing to the extent of the damage, no trains are expected to be able to operate between London Paddington and Hayes & Harlington in either direction for much of Wednesday.

“As a result, GWR, TfL Rail and Heathrow Express will not be operating a train service between London Paddington, Hayes & Harlington or Slough until such time as repairs have been completed.”

Rail replacement buses are operating between London Paddington and Heathrow Airport.

The operator also advised: “If you are travelling from London beyond Reading please do not go to London Paddington but instead travel straight to either London Waterloo, London Marylebone or London Euston depending upon your ultimate destination.”

It comes after commuters faced major delays on Tuesday evening as electricity supply problems caused delays and cancellations on a number of busy routes in and out of London.

Southern, Southeastern, Thameslink and Gatwick Express were all reporting cancellations and delays of up to 45 minutes.

GWR has stated there will be a half hourly service from Brsitol Temple Meads to Reading, where passengers can board a reduced speed service to London Waterloo.

National Rail has said TfL Rail services from London will be suspended until at least 2pm today.

There is no service in either direction on the Heathrow Express due to the overhead electrical faults

At 8.05am, at peak rush hour, Network Rail tweeted that they had been working around the clock to fix damaged electrical cables.

It read: “We have been working through the night to try and fix 200m of damaged electric power cables between Slough and Paddington. Please check before you travel this morning.”

Transport for London (TfL) tweeted: “Due to damage to the overhead electrical wires there is no service on TfL Rail btw Paddington and Heathrow.

“Ticket acceptance is in place on local buses and London Underground. We are working closely with Network Rail to restore services as quickly as possible.”

One commuter between London and Brisol who gave his name as Ahmed, told BBC London that GWR couyld have helped passengers by texting them to let them know of the faults.

“They told me as an alternative route I’ll have to go from here to Waterloo, from Waterloo to Reading, and from Reading then to Parkway.

“It’s not convenient, but we have no other option.

“It would’ve been nice if we’d got an email saying this is the situation, this is the alternative route, instead of us coming here and then going to Waterloo“

Disgruntled commuter Rich Pitts said the alternatuve routes woukld only add more journey time to an already stressful mornign commute.

Mr Pitts tweeted at 8.30am: “So @GWRHelp  Reading Waterloo really won’t be a realistic option stop telling people from the west it is #Paddington @networkrail Reading station totally rammed.

Twitter user Dani Nicole vented her furstration, tweeting: “Travel day from hell. First the @GWRHelp isn’t running from Hayes to Paddington.

“Now @metline is going to be part suspended from Finchley road to Aldgate. Is the universe trying to tell me something???”

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