Londoners face travel misery all day after damage to Elizabeth line overhead cables

Passengers are facing a second day of travel misery after major disruption is set to affect journeys on the Elizabeth line today.

The Elizabeth line – known among fans as the Lizzie line – is having major disruption between London Paddington station, Heathrow Airport and Reading. Trains are unable to run between West Ealing and Greenford.

This is because overhead electric wires were damaged on the route, meaning fewer trains than usual can run on the busy line.

The issue is also hampering Great Western Railway and Heathrow Express services to and from Paddington.

Network Rail engineers are on site fixing the problem, but the disruption is expected to last until the end of the day, spelling bad news for commuters heading home later.

National Rail said: ‘As a result, trains running between London Paddington and Heathrow Airport / Reading may be cancelled or severely delayed. Trains are unable to run between West Ealing and Greenford.’

At the moment, services from Paddington to Heathrow Airport, Maidenhead and Reading will not stop at Acton Main Line, West Ealing and Hanwell stations.

Only two trains per hour are expected to run between Paddington and Heathrow Terminal T4, and services are reporting significant delays.

The damage to the overhead line doesn’t appear to be directly weather-related, Network Rail told Metro. Elsewhere in the UK, trains and flights have been disrupted after snowy and icy conditions.

Elizabeth line passengers vented their frustration on social media after several stations on the route were allegedly in ‘shambles’ as trains were cancelled.

One person said: ‘Serious delays on Elizabeth line, no announcements, staff completely ineffective doing nothing and saying nothing….overcrowding now occurring at Woolwich.’

Another one claimed the way ‘the Elizabeth line departures are being handled at the main Paddington station is an absolute shambles.’

He said there are ‘hundreds of passengers and staff with no idea what’s going on.’

A Network Rail spokesperson told Metro: ‘We’re very sorry to passengers being affected by severe disruption between Reading and London Paddington this morning owing to damage to the overhead power lines.

‘Trains running between London Paddington and Heathrow Airport and Reading may be cancelled or severely delayed throughout today, so passengers are strongly advised to plan ahead before travelling for the rest of the day.’

The Piccadilly line has been hit by severe delays later in the morning after a double whammy of a signal failure at Acton Town and an earlier faulty train at Cockfosters.

The Northern line continues to have minor delays between Kennington and Battersea Power Station because of an earlier points failure at Battersea Power Station.

Elsewhere, there are minor delays on the Circle and District lines due to an earlier faulty train at South Kensington.

The Metropolitan Line was facing severe delays between Wembley Park and Aldgate due to late finishing of engineering work, but this has since been dowgraded to minor delays.

In slightly better news, the Bakerloo, Central and the rest of Metropolitan line have minor delays. The Bakerloo line is affected by train cancellations, while the minor delays between White City and West Ruislip are due to a faulty train at Perivale.

Over on the Jubilee line, there are minor delays due to late finishing of engineering work.

Certain routes – the Circle, District and Elizabeth line – are accepting tickets on buses and other routes while the problems are fixed.

TfL will be giving more updates on its website.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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