Train passengers in the capital have been warned of travel disruption as London Paddington will be closing for six days from Friday (December 23).
The closure is due to work on the Crossrail project and there will be no services in or out of Paddington main line station between December 24 to 29.
There will also be a reduced timetable between December 30 and January 2.
Between Christmas Eve and December 29 there will be no train services operating between London Paddington and Ealing Broadway , but passengers will be able to change at Ealing Broadway for London Underground services.
The changes mean passengers travelling to Bristol and South Wales will have to board trains at London Waterloo.
GWR tickets will also be valid at Euston for trains towards Hereford, Marylebone for Oxford and Waterloo for Bristol, South Wales, the South West and Basingstoke.
'Increase capacity and connectivity'
Managing director of GWR, Mark Hopwood, said: “These improvement works will ultimately increase capacity and connectivity in London and the Thames Valley, and on the wider Great Western network.
“New trains are already in operation on some GWR routes and more are on their way during the course of 2017 and 2018 – delivering more seats and more frequent services.
“We have worked closely with our colleagues at Network Rail to keep disruption to a minimum; however, we urge customers to travel early and to note that we will not be able to run trains between London Paddington and Ealing Broadway for four days from and including Christmas Eve.
“We strongly advise customers with luggage, children or who require assisted travel, to use either London Marylebone, Euston or Waterloo.
“This vital investment will make the railway more reliable for years to come, while improving journeys for thousands of passengers.
"There's never a good time to impact on journeys and I'd like to thank passengers in advance for their patience.”
'Quieter, more reliable journeys'
Crossrail programme director at Network Rail, Matthew Steele, said: “Successful completion of these Christmas works is not only vital to delivering the Crossrail project, but is an integral part of our Railway Upgrade plan as we continue to enhance the capacity and reliability of our railway, and enable the introduction of new rolling stock in 2017 that has more seats and offers quieter, more reliable journeys.”
Earlier this month permission was granted in a separate project to redevelop the Paddington area, including improvements to the station.
Keep up to date with the latest news in west London via the free getwestlondon app.
You can even set it to receive push notifications for all the breaking news in your area.
Available to download from the App Store or Google Play for Android now!
