Services resume at Paddington following 27-hour halt
Services to and from Paddington station have finally resumed following a 27-hour halt which disrupted thousands of people mourning Her Majesty the Queen.
Network Rail – whose services between Paddington and Reading stopped working early on Monday morning due to faulty electric wires – said trains resumed around 9.30am.
The station closed again at 10 to allow engineers to finalise repairs, with disruption expected to continue for a few hours.
Last night large queues were seen at Reading as, following the Queen’s funeral, distressed people were trying to make their way back to London or travel westwards.
“Disruption to services is expected to continue into the morning and passengers are strongly advised to only travel if necessary and check before they travel,” the rail operator tweeted on Monday.
“We sincerely apologise for the significant disruption caused by this substantial de-wirement.
Elizabeth line services, which were initially disrupted, resumed at Paddington on a 30-minute basis.
Despite the network’s apologies, distressed travellers took it to Twitter to express their frustration.
“It’ll be a long evening. Well done Network Rail and South Western Railway,” one user tweeted while another pleaded with Great Western Railway for help.
As a result of the de-wirement at Paddington thousands of mourners missed Her Majesty’s funeral and resorted to watch the proceedings on their phones.