Owing to the short notice unavailability of carriages which form Great Western Railway High Speed train services, there will be a limited service in place across the main line routes.
CUSTOMERS FOR ALL THE AFFECTED ROUTES ARE STRONGLY ADVISED TO CHECK THEIR INTENDED JOURNEY PRIOR TO TRAVEL.
Great Western Railway have had to adapt many of their High Speed service timetables into a series of separate shuttle services. This has been done to ensure that they can advertise and operate a limited but robust service using all available resources. As a result, certain journeys which were previously direct train services will now require one or more changes of train to cover the same journey. For example, a Swansea to London Paddington journey will now require a change of train at both Newport (South Wales) and Reading.
The following alterations will apply:
There will be no service, or only an extremely limited service, with no alternative means of transport available on the following routes:
- London Paddington - Swindon - Bath Spa - Bristol Temple Meads
- London Paddington - Swindon - Bristol Parkway - Newport - Cardiff Central - Swansea
- London Paddington - Reading - Taunton - Exeter St Davids - Plymouth - Penzance
- London Paddington - Reading - Oxford - Evesham - Worcester - Great Malvern - Hereford
- London Paddington - Reading - Swindon - Gloucester - Cheltenham Spa.
CUSTOMERS FOR THESE ROUTES ARE STRONGLY ADVISED NOT TO TRAVEL IF THEIR JOURNEY WOULD TAKE THEM BEYOND THE CONFINES OF THE CHELTENHAM / GLOUCESTER / SWINDON AREA. MOST JOURNEY TIMES WILL BE CONSIDERABLY EXTENDED, CONNECTIONS CANNOT BE GUARANTEED AND IT MAY NOT BE POSSIBLE TO COMPLETE LATE NIGHT JOURNEYS AT ALL AS A RESULT.
Local (stopping) services to and from London Paddington, Reading, Didcot Parkway, Oxford will continue to operate. Local services between Bristol and Exeter, between Cardiff and Portsmouth and around 75% of Plymouth - Penzance services will also run as normal.
Alternative Travel Advice:
To help you with your journey, tickets will be accepted on Avanti West Coast, South Western Railway, CrossCountry, Chiltern Railways and West Midlands Railway services via any reasonable route.
Disruption is likely to continue into next week, and details of the timetable are currently being finalised. Please keep checking this page for updates.
Additional information
A number of Class 800 series Hitachi trains from several train companies have been taken out of service for checks as a precautionary measure. This problem is being investigated by Hitachi and once trains have been checked, we hope to be able to release them back into service as soon as possible.
Check before you travel:
You can check your journey using the National Rail Enquiries real-time Journey Planner
Twitter:
If you would like to follow this incident on Twitter, please use #GreatWesternRailway
Compensation:
You may be entitled to compensation if you experience a delay in completing your journey today. Please keep your train ticket and make a note of your journey, as both will be required to support any claim.
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