Hello All
My son is thinking of buying his first flat near West Ealing Station he is a school teacher and will commute to Paddington each day.
He says there are 4 trains an hour to Paddington is that correct? Do you think he will manage to get on a train each day as I imagine they may be crowded.
Is he correct in thinking once Crossrail has arrived it will increase to 10 trains per hour? But his season ticket will be more expensive?
He is a first time buyer and currently rents and is able to walk to his school
None of our family are from London and all this is very new to us.
Thank You

Two trains per hour from West Ealing are the Paddington to Greenford service, which I have never seen full to bursting, so there is a good chance of a seat both ways on those trains.

Greenford trains:
xx26 & xx56 West Ealing to Paddington
xx15 & xx45 Paddington to West Ealing

Ian

Two trains per hour from West Ealing are the Paddington to Greenford service, which I have never seen full to bursting, so
there is a good chance of a seat both ways on those trains.

The other two are Heathrow Connect. I haven't taken it but I'd think
that since he's going in the opposite direction from Heathrow staff
(away from the airport in the morning, toward the airport in the
evening) they shouldn't be too overcrowded either.

West Ealing is in zone 3, so he can either get a zone 1-3 travelcard
for £144.80/mo, or just a West Ealing-Paddington season ticket for
£89.90. The travelcard is good anywhere in zone 3, and will be the
ticket he wants if he's changing to the Underground at Paddington.
If he knows he'll be there for a year, an annual season ticket
is cheaper than monthly and includes a Gold Card which provides
discounts on other rail tickets.

If you follow the BBC's Technology Correspondent (Rory Cellan-Jones) on Twitter, you'll see that he's a commuter from West Ealing and moans about the poor service and overcrowding. I expect Crossrail to fix this, but until then I'd want a backup plan for getting to Ealing Broadway on foot or by bus.