Yesterday afternoon in London there was a rain storm - well it was
raining a little bit anyway.

Now Paddington Station has always had a leaky roof or plural. Even the
brand new multi-million pound restoration of arch 4 hasn't cured that.

It's leaks along the length of platform 12 are a disgrace. The dinky
buckets with gauze over the top are a trip hazard, as are the creased
up trip mats (sorry anti-slip) mats, placed over strategic wet areas.
They even employ guys in orange overalls to sweep up the drips!!

But Paddington excelled itself yesterday. The leak between arch 2 and
3 was so great that the HEX ticket office was closed. The HEX ticket
machines and Heathrow check-in machines were unreachable. The water
dripped - well more likely cascaded down - causing a puddle stretching
from the HEX office to the food outlets including Burgher King, and
threatened to swamp the Lebara sim-card marquee on the concourse. The
water also blocked the entrance to the HEX platforms 7 & 8 - welcome
to drippy London you tourists from Heathrow.

So whilst millions has been spent on arch 4 (grossly inflated due to
Railtrack's & Network Rail's prevarication over the last 15 years to
actually restore the damn thing rather than to demolish it for an
office block), it appears that the money has now run out to keep
arches 1 / 2 / 3 watertight.

Expect more floods and dripping water at Paddington in days to come.
At least today is sunny.

CJB.