Early Warning – Paddington station will be closed over Christmas

An early warning for anyone planning a Christmas getaway to the west, as London Paddington station will be closed over most of the period.

Paddington Station, Jan 2023

Paddington station will be closed on Sunday 24th Dec (Christmas Eve) and reopens on Thursday 28th Dec. So for Christmas getaways using Paddington station, you will need to travel by the end of Saturday 23rd December 2023.

During the closure, the railway will be closed between Paddington and Ealing Broadway, so it will be possible to catch a train at Ealing Broadway on Christmas Eve and on Wed 27th December, but the station will likely be very crowded and the train services will be less frequent.

Also, there’s no Elizabeth line between Paddington and Ealing Broadway, so getting to Ealing Broadway will be challenging.

During the closure, most GWR services will start or terminate at Reading instead of London Paddington, with limited train services to/from Ealing Broadway. A reduced Elizabeth line service will run between Ealing Broadway and Maidenhead.

Depending on your destinations, GWR has confirmed that its tickets can be used with South Western Railway between Reading and London Waterloo, or on Chiltern Railways between Oxford and London Marylebone instead.

The closure is because of works on the railway to install new signalling and track equipment to prepare for HS2’s Old Oak Common station, which will need a lot of work over the next few years to realign the railway for the new station and install all the new equipment.

Dean Haynes, GWR’s Station Manager for London Paddington, said: “As we continue to invest in our railway, we will only be able to run trains to and from Reading and Ealing Broadway this Sunday and on 24 and 27 of December.

“To keep you moving, we have been working with other train companies to provide alternative routes. However, if you can travel on the days before or after, you should consider doing so because journeys will take much longer while the work takes place.”

Train services to/from London Paddington will also be impacted this coming Sunday (26th Nov) as preparatory work is undertaken. Most GWR services start or terminate at Reading instead of London Paddington, and there will be limited train services to or from Slough until midday, and then Ealing Broadway.