London Paddington: 'Major' disruption to Elizabeth line and rail services to Heathrow after overhead cables damaged

Commuters heading to and from London Paddington faced “major disruption” on Thursday because of damage to overhead electric cables.

Trains running to and from the station may be cancelled or delayed by up to 80 minutes, National Rail said.

The disruption also affects the Elizabeth line, with services to stations between Paddington and Heathrow and Reading cancelled.

Major disruption is expected, National Rail said, until the end of the day.

One stranded passenger told Sky News: “I’ve been sat for an hour outside Paddington and [it was] just announced another train has crashed into a power line.

“There’ll be thousands of people heading for Heathrow missing flights.”

Another said: “We’ve just seen passengers from another train being escorted along the tracks. But it’s now more than three hours that we’ve been stuck – and we haven’t seen a single representative of TFL or the emergency services. People are calm in this carriage but they’re getting increasingly frustrated.”

Chiltern Railways and South Western Railway are accepting tickets on parts of their networks.

Customers can also use their tickets on London Underground “via any reasonable route” and parts of the London Buses network.

Thameslink, Southeastern and the Docklands Light Railway will also accept the tickets on some journeys.

@jessevershed said on X that she had spent “nearly THREE hours” just outside Paddington… Nobody is finding this funny now… and poor driver doesn’t have a clue.”

@LynneDoherty_ had been stuck for more than three hours, she said on X, and “a train was pulled up alongside us over an hour ago to ‘rescue’ us but no evacuation yet! Could be a long night. What is happening???”

Another commuter, @madrisimo77 stuck on a train described in a video posted on X having to go to the driver to ask to get off to relieve himself. People on the train were “getting agitated”, he said, and were “kicking doors”.

A Network Rail spokesperson said: “We’re sorry to passengers delayed after a fault with the overhead cables powering trains in the Ladbroke Grove area”, forcing them to “stop all services”.

“Our teams are also working with train operators to assist people on the trains affected. Anyone planning travel tonight or tomorrow morning should check National Rail Enquiries for the latest on the disruption.”

Transport Secretary Mark Harper posted on X that he was aware of “a serious incident involving overhead wires outside Paddington, with a number of trains stationary on the tracks”.

His department, he said, was working with Network Rail and the relevant operators.