Old Oak Common station construction

Old Oak Common, three miles west of London Paddington, is the newest railway station being built in the UK and will be one of the busiest when open.

HS2, the new rail line connecting the West Midlands to London, will be terminating at Old Oak Common station until the line is extended through to London Euston.

The station will have 14 platforms in total – six high-speed platforms will be situated underground and a further eight will be served by conventional rail services.

It will be the main interchange between HS2 services and the Elizabeth line for Central London or Heathrow Airport, plus buses for Shepherd’s Bush, White City and the Central Middlesex Hospital.

No final decisions have yet been taken about GWR services calling at Old Oak Common once it has opened.

For much of the time, construction work for Old Oak Common has been planned to ensure there will be limited impact on train services.

However, there will be some periods where trains cannot run into London Paddington.

Longer periods of disruption are planned to take place during Christmas and New Year, when overall there are fewer people traveling by rail.

There will also be periods when there is reduced access to London Paddington with only two tracks into the station rather than four.

This will still allow some trains into London Paddington but will result in reduced services.

This disruption will be timed to minimise impact on customers’ journeys as much as possible with lines closed late in the evening, the early morning and weekends.

In 2025, 2026, 2027 and 2028, there will be further construction work, including periods where trains will not be able to run into London Paddington.

When the tracks are diverted through the Old Oak Common site, from 2026, a 60mph speed limit will mean journey times to/from London Paddington will be around 90 seconds longer.

Some GWR services will be diverted to/from London Euston instead of London Paddington.

London Euston was chosen having looked at all the alternatives as it means shorter extended journey times. We can also operate our high speed trains into the station and maintain our customer service, including having GWR staff at the station.

However, most trains will start/terminate at Reading instead with connections to stopping trains between Reading and Ealing Broadway for connections with TfL services.

Elizabeth line trains will run between Paddington and Abbey Wood/Shenfield, plus between Ealing Broadway and Reading or, when possible, Heathrow Airport.

TfL’s underground train services will still be able to stop at Paddington station on the Bakerloo, Hammersmith & City, Circle or District lines.

Our plan would be to operate two trains an hour in each direction to/from London Euston.

• An hourly service between London Euston and South Wales
• An hourly service between London Euston and the South West of England

Diverting train services adds at least 15 minutes to the journey times for trains between London and South Wales/South West.

However, other engineering work on the railway between Ealing Broadway and Reading could also extend journey times further.

We are planning to provide our Pullman Dining service on some diverted trains between London Euston and Plymouth or Swansea.

Normally these services don’t operate over the festive period.

If future planned work does require a diversion when our sleeper services are scheduled to run, we would also like to divert these trains to London Euston and this is being assessed.

We are planning to provide a similar level of service for our customers using London Euston as we provide at London Paddington.

GWR staff will be on hand at the station to offer assistance to those customers travelling on our diverted train services.

We will also plan to keep GWR trains away from other train services at London Euston to help minimise overcrowding at the station.

Euston is on the Northern line of the London Underground with trains to Tottenham Court Road, where Elizabeth line services run to/from Paddington.

Alternatively, nearby Euston Square station is on the Hammersmith & City/Circle lines that run to/from Paddington.

GWR will look to provide services between Ealing Broadway and Didcot Parkway, with some trains extending to Swindon, Bristol Parkway or Cardiff Central at Christmas.

Elizabeth line trains will be operating between Ealing Broadway and Reading or, when possible, Heathrow Airport.

Central and District line services will be running with TfL looking to increase the frequency of its Central line trains to/from central London.

Central line trains connect in with Elizabeth line services at Bond Street/Tottenham Court Road.

District line trains connect (via a change at Earls Court) to Paddington, where Elizabeth line trains will be running to/from Abbey Wood/Shenfield.

GWR will operate long-distance trains between Reading and Hereford/Worcester via Oxford, as well as Bristol Temple Meads and the South West.

We will also look to provide train services via Reading between Ealing Broadway and Didcot Parkway – some extending to Swindon, Bristol Parkway or Cardiff Central.

There will be no direct trains running to/from Cheltenham Spa – change at Swindon instead.

Elizabeth line trains will be running between Reading and Ealing Broadway.

SWR trains will be running between Reading and London Waterloo.

CrossCountry trains will operate between the South Coast and the North of England/Scotland.

No, we are not planning to provide rail replacement services using road transport as multiple alternative train services to/from central London will be available.

Trains will be running between:

• London Marylebone and Oxford or Banbury (Chiltern Railways)
• London Waterloo and Reading or Exeter St Davids (SWR)
• London Euston and Birmingham New Street (Avanti West Coast/LNWR)

Piccadilly line services will also be operating between Heathrow Airport and central London.

This is normally at around 12 weeks out from when any planned disruption to services is due to take place.