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Travel disruption continues on railways as engineers tackle cable damage

Issues at Stevenage and Hayes & Harlington are causing problems for services through London Kings Cross, Paddington and Moorgate.

William Janes
Wednesday 21 September 2022 02:00 EDT
Travel disruption continues on railways as engineers tackle cable damage (James Manning/PA)
Travel disruption continues on railways as engineers tackle cable damage (James Manning/PA) (PA Wire)

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Rail services to and from London continue to be impacted on Wednesday morning by damage to overhead wires that has caused disruption since the Queen’s funeral on Monday.

Issues at Stevenage and Hayes & Harlington are causing problems for services through London Kings Cross, Paddington and Moorgate.

Affected passengers are being warned that services through Stevenage will remain disrupted – including with 50 minute delays and cancellations – for the rest of Wednesday.

Meanwhile, damage to overhead wires at Hayes and Harlington meant fewer services were able to run from Paddington station to destinations in the west on Tuesday, including destinations in Wales, and south-west England, as well as Heathrow Airport.

The station closed at 10pm to allow engineers to complete repairs, cancelling all GWR and Heathrow Express services in and out of London Paddington until 6am on Wednesday.

National Rail said disruptions were expected to continue until 8am.

Those travelling towards points north and south of the capital, including destinations in the far north and Scotland as well as central and southern England, have been coping with cancellations and severe delays due to the damage at Stevenage.

The problem at Hayes & Harlington arose at around 6.30am on Monday after a number of trains became entangled, the PA news agency understands.

All four lines serving Paddington reopened on Tuesday morning after a 27-hour suspension, but the wires were only working above two of them.

The damage meant a day of mayhem for mourners who travelled to London for the Queen’s funeral.

The problem caused thousands of mourners to miss the funeral service or to resort to watching it on phones in carriages and on platforms.

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