First Great Western is advising passengers planning to make train journeys from London Paddington on Christmas Eve to check travel details carefully in advance, as engineering works at London Paddington Station will affect many services from 12.15.

High-speed services will start and terminate at Ealing Broadway on the afternoon of 24 December. Network Rail is carrying out essential work on main lines from 12.25 on 24 December until 06.15 on Wednesday 27 December. Says Richard Rowland, First Great Western’s Regional Manager: “Because Christmas Eve falls on a Sunday this year, we felt it was better to allow Network Rail to start the engineering works at midday on Christmas Eve and to finish early on the morning of December 27. We would encourage our customers to make their journeys on Friday 22 December or Saturday 23 December. We do hope our customers will understand the need for service changes on
Christmas Eve afternoon”.

Customers will need to connect with westbound high-speed services at Ealing Broadway or take a London and Thames Valley regional train service to Reading to make the connection. Oxford and North Cotswold services are
unaffected.

Network Rail’s Route Director Robbie Burns adds: “Large scale engineering work is essential to the future of the railway. The Christmas period presents us with an ideal opportunity to carry out essential track renewals and maintenance work in the Paddington area, which will deliver long-term benefits for passengers. We have been careful to plan the work when far fewer people are travelling, minimising disruption for passengers and will work closely with First Great Western to keep people on the move on the afternoon of Christmas Eve”.

In line with previous years, First Great Western will run a Saturday timetable service between Christmas and New Year (27-29 December).