Rail passengers stuck for hours in 'surreal' ordeal

Services to and from Paddington station remain disrupted after hundreds of passengers were stranded on dark, cold trains for several hours.

Damage to overhead electric cables in the Ladbroke Grove area of west London affected Elizabeth line, Great Western Railway and Heathrow Express trains.

Some passengers said they were stuck for more than three hours on Thursday.

Police were also called to reports of a sexual assault on the Elizabeth line during the disruption.

Engineers managed to open two lines for electric trains serving Paddington.

Major disruption is expected until 18:00 GMT on Friday, with trains in and out of Paddington cancelled or delayed. Great Western Railway (GWR) has advised customers to avoid travelling between London and Reading until further notice.

Elizabeth line trains are running with delays, while a reduced half-hourly service is running on the Heathrow Express.

Train drivers' union Aslef said a manager drafted in to cover during strike action on Thursday was driving the train involved in the incident in which the overhead cables were damaged.

Union members who work at GWR walked out as part of a long-running dispute over pay. Aslef said other train operators had chosen "quite sensibly" not to run any services during the strike.

A GWR spokesperson said: "The only people who can drive our trains are competent train drivers with route knowledge.

"That would include train driving instructors."

The £19bn Elizabeth line - which opened in May 2022 - uses mainline rail infrastructure west of Paddington.

Paddington services have been repeatedly affected by rail system faults in recent weeks - incidents on the Great Western line include four damaged rails discovered in eight days last month.

The British Transport Police said it was called to reports of a sexual assault on the Elizabeth line service at about 20:30 GMT on Thursday.

"While responding to the incident at Paddington station on 7 December, officers on scene were made aware of reports of a sexual assault," a spokesperson said.

"A man was arrested and later released. Inquiries are ongoing to establish the circumstances surrounding the incident."

TV personality Rachel Riley was among those affected by the disrupted service on Thursday night. She posted on X: "Nearly 4 hours after we got on, we're getting off the Elizabeth line, woohoo!"

Singer James Blunt also claimed to have been caught up in the chaos.

Blunt wrote on X: "Been stuck somewhere outside Paddington for close to 4 hours now. Out of peanuts and wine".

Some passengers reported being stuck for more than three hours while receiving no information from rail operators, while others said they had been unable to access a toilet.

Commuter Mikey Worrall described the train as "lurching to a stop" and then a long, several-hour wait in semi-darkness as the driver drip-fed what little information they had through to passengers.

Eventually, the battery back-up running the train's heating and light services ran out, and passengers were left in darkness for another hour and a half until they were evacuated from the train.

Mr Worrall said: "We saw a couple of workers come past, and they were trying to keep everyone calm. Suddenly, we saw a stream of people coming down the track, and at that point it was clear that we would be getting off.

"It was really eerie walking down the railway line in amongst this big crowd of people. It felt like a wartime thing."

A Network Rail spokesman said: "We are so sorry for the difficult journeys passengers endured on our railway last night and we will be investigating how and why it happened.

"The knock-on effects from last night mean operators will not be able to run a full service from Paddington today and passengers should check before they travel.

"Repairs are ongoing and we hope to have the railway fully open by the weekend."

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