IT’S BEEN hailed as the biggest shake-up to the railways for five years, and it will be arriving at stations from Sunday.
Great Western Railway says the new timetables will see more connectivity with the Elizabeth Line, making it easier for passengers to get to the heart of London. The company says passengers will benefit from a 5% increase in services and a fifth of trains having their timing readjusted.
From May 22, the new tube line will reach its planned level of service – up to 10 trains per hour, or one every six minutes – from the Heathrow Airport Junction towards London. And GWR is tweaking its services to try and better serve the Thames Valley.
The biggest winners will be travellers coming from the Marlow, Henley and Windsor branch lines which will see services retimed to better connect with destinations across the south.
Welcoming the launch of the plans, Theresa May said: “As the MP for Maidenhead, I remain committed to ensuring my constituents are served by top quality, reliable rail services.
“I welcome the announcement that people will benefit from faster and more frequent off-peak services to London. I am also pleased to see services on the Marlow and Henley branch lines linking in with the mainline services giving better connections for travellers.
“As your MP I will continue to work for investment in Maidenhead’s railways. These faster off- peak trains will improve our rail services. Taken together with the increased frequency of trains they will generate significant economic benefits reducing journey times by up to 10 minutes.
Off-peak services between London Paddington and the North Cotswolds will be up to five minutes quicker, with trains running non-stop between Reading and London Paddington.
Overall, the number of GWR services on an average weekday will increase from 1,643 in May 2019 to 1,720 in May 2023.
GWR Managing Director Mark Hopwood said: “With this new timetable we can now speed up some journey times, realizing some long-held aspirations of ours and our customers.
“Those using our branch lines will also benefit from better connectivity with the timetable working more harmoniously with Elizabeth line services.
“This new timetable delivers more train services, serving even more stations, and providing greater value for money for taxpayers.”
The changes for the London and Thames Valley
- Additional Elizabeth line services will run with up to 10 trains per hour east of Heathrow Airport Junction, allowing GWR to make changes to better shape services in the Thames Valley:
- London Paddington-Didcot Parkway Class 387 (electric trains) services will run non-stop from Slough to Paddington on the mainline – saving as much as 10 minutes on journey times.
- Switching from the relief lines will also help performance, avoiding conflict with Elizabeth line services. Services on the mainlines will be retimed, and there will be various minor changes to re-cast services around the revised Paddington-Didcot service.
- The 0634 Didcot-Paddington, 0831 Reading-Paddington, 1656 Paddington-Maidenhead and 1757 Paddington-Reading services will be replaced by Elizabeth line services.
- London Paddington-Oxford services will now call at Didcot Parkway.
- Marlow, Henley, Windsor and Greenford branch line services will be retimed to ensure they better connect with the mainline services in the revised timetable.
- London Paddington-North Cotswolds services will no longer call at Slough off peak. This will enable them to be sped up progressively. This will reduce journey times by approximately 5 minutes.
For more details, log on to: https://www.gwr.com/travel-information/travel-updates/check-your-journey
