News

Passengers travelling on services between Reading and London Paddington on the morning of the London Marathon, Sunday 23 April, should check before they travel and plan their journeys to start after 0900 where possible. Network Rail will undertake vital electrification work between Reading and Hayes & Harlington. Great Western Railway will operate bus replacement services between Reading and London Paddington until 0900. Where possible customers are advised to travel after 0900 or check before they travel and use the alternative routes provided. Passengers with tickets for Sunday morning will be able to travel on any service Sunday afternoon/evening.

Great Western Railway (GWR) is to launch a smartcard for the Severn Beach Line, as part of a pilot which could see combined rail and bus travel in a single ticket offered across Bristol. Allowing people to add weekly, monthly and annual season rail tickets to an electronic card to begin with, the pilot project is being run in partnership with Bristol City Council and if successful could form part of a wider, integrated scheme, including MetroWest, and local bus services.

On Sunday 9 April, a date that marked Brunel’s 211th birthday, a team of Great Western Railway (GWR) engineers took to the track to test one of the most enduring theories surrounding Brunel’s iconic Box tunnel just outside of Bath.

£20 million work has begun today to build a new 1,800 capacity multi-storey car park at Didcot Parkway railway station. The scheme, which is part funded by the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership, will see the number of car parking spaces at the station increase by over 65% to 1,800.

Getting to Glastonbury: Discounted tickets are now available to buy for customers travelling to this year’s Glastonbury Festival. Great Western Railway, who run trains across the South West, will operate an additional 17 trains providing over 9,000 extra seats to take customers to the festival.

On Friday 31 March a new bicycle hire scheme was launched at GWR’s Moreton-in-Marsh Station. Based on the idea of being as easy to use and as flexible as possible, Bainton Bikes is offering a bike hire scheme that has no docking stations and is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Great Western Railway is offering families up to 50% off rail fares this Easter, helping those with children take advantage of the train.

A major programme of work to modernise the Great Western Mainline this Easter will see platforms at Bath Spa station widened in preparation for longer trains providing over a fifth more seats.

Parking at Gloucester Station is set to double this winter after work began on a new car park today.

Passengers travelling on services between Reading and London Paddington this Sunday, 26 March, should check before they travel and plan their journeys to start after 1300 if possible. Network Rail will undertake vital Crossrail work between Reading and Hayes & Harlington. Great Western Railway will operate diverted rail or bus replacement services between Reading and London Paddington until 1300.

Iconic London depot to be revealed to members of the public in celebration of 111 years of engineering excellence OOC111

A special event was held at Exeter St Thomas Station on Saturday, 11 March, to celebrate the new “Blooming St Thomas” mural which is the latest improvement at the station, following installation of new waiting shelters and the Eco Garden in 2015.