"CJB" wrote in message
...
Does anyone know why ALL trains to / from Heathrow have been cancelled
without notice for TWO days?

Some reports say signal failure, others say cable theft, others say
points failure at Airport Junction, others say was a fire at
Paddington.

What IS certain is that the severe disruption into / out of Paddington
has been going on since 11.00 Thursday morning, and are likely to
persist until 15.00 Friday afternoon.

As is typical for FGW / Heathrow NO MANAGEMENT WERE IN SIGHT on the
concourse at Paddington during the day nor during the evening rush-
hour on Thursday.

NO CONTINGENCY PLANS WERE IN PLACE to get airline pax to Heathrow to
make their flights. HEX staff at Paddington were telling pax to get
the Piccadilly Line to Heathrow - actually not that easy to do esp.
with luggage. And T4L were not accepting HEX or HConn tickets.

And the thousands who missed their flights from Heathrow likely also
found that they missed their onward flight connections, missed meeting
accommodation bookings, and are likely to miss spending Christmas with
their relatives / friends. And with the Christmas getaway now in full
swing thousands will find that rebooking flights is not an option
before the New Year.

Also most (all?) Intercity trains from Paddington to the West were
cancelled. Again rebooking is likely to be an issue since all
subsequent trains are likely to be fully booked. And trains are not
likely to be running again until later Friday afternoon.

What few trains that were running - mainly Intercitys - were not
stopping at local stations due to over-crowding or more likely not
having stop orders issued. So pax at local stations had to wait and
wait and wait until a train condescended to stop for them.

Wonderful chaos as usual. And FGW / Heathriw / NetworkRail management
doesn't give a damn.

I think (but can't be absolutely sure) that yesterday (Thursday 20th) there
was a "signal failure" in the Slough/Southall area. This was followed by a
further failure on the Heathrow branch. Today (Friday 21st) there has been
a fire somewhere around Westbourne Park.

What I'm less clear about is what effect each one has had. I assume the
suspension of HeX and HC is due to the problems on the branch but I can't
help feeling that the removal of those trains has been a benefit to the rest
of the operation because, however many trains may be suffering at least
those 6 each way every hour are out of the way. The original signal
failure seems to have left only 2 lines operational.

The BBC seems to be trying to blame the fire at Westbourne Park (and I'm
beginning to wonder if that is actually where the fire is/was) for all the
chaos but I find that very difficult to believe.