Paddington Station

A Line of trains at Paddington Station

London Paddington station is one of London's major termini with trains to Bristol, Cardiff, Cornwall and the west. Actually facing firmly north-west, Paddington is the gateway to the west country with services run by GWR (Great Western Railway) using its 800/802s for long distance journeys and its 387s for shorter distance journeys. Paddington station also serves the Heathrow Express for direct trains to Heathrow, and TfL Rail for slower (and cheaper) journeys to Heathrow and the stopping services to Reading.

The Other Parts of Paddington

Two Underground trains at the sub-surface platforms at Paddington (Praed Street) Underground Station

Alongside the mainline station Paddington is also served by the Underground's Bakerloo, Circle, District, and Hammersmith and City lines. These are contained in two separate sites with the Bakerloo, District and Circle Line via Victoria at Praed Street. And the Circle to Hammersmith and via King's Cross, and Hammersmith and City Lines over 300 metres away at Bishop's Road.

Paddington also has a brand new part of its station which opens in the next few months. The Elizabeth Line station is located to the south-west of the mainline station, adjacent to platform 1, and will give direct services to Central London, Shenfield, and Abbey Wood.

Brunel's Station

The entrance to Brunel's station with a "Welcome to Paddington Station" sign

The main Paddington station was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel with the permanent station opening in 1854. The station now has 13 platforms (numbered 1-12 and 14 because 13 is unlucky) with Great Western Railway's long distance services usually departing from platforms 1-9. Heathrow Express services usually depart from platforms 6 and 7 and the stopping services, mostly operated by TfL Rail but with some services operated by GWR, departing from platforms 10-12 and 14. TfL Rail uses class 345 trains with slightly longer carriages than most trains, this means that because of the sharp curve of the platforms the centre pair of doors at Paddington are locked shut.

Heathrow

A Great Western IEP with a TfL Rail 345 with the latter on its way to Heathrow terminal 5

From Paddington there are two separate ways to get to Heathrow Airport, the first being the Heathrow Express which takes 15 minutes and departs every 15 minutes and the second is TfL Rail (before May 2018 it was Heathrow Connect) which takes 30 minutes to do the journey. At Paddington to cater for disabilities the height of platform 6 and 7 are higher than normal with a height that means there is level access from the platform to the train.

Elizabeth Line

The entrance to the Elizabeth Line station at Paddington with an Elizabeth Line purple sign

Currently TfL Rail services terminate in the main station building but a brand new station for them is nearing completion. When the new station first opens it is planned that services will terminate at Paddington after using the brand new tunnels from Central London. Eventually the terminating TfL Rail services will be rebranded to Elizabeth Line and diverted through the new station to Abbey Wood and Shenfield.

The Night Riviera

The Night Riviera is one of the UK’s two sleeper services and operates between Paddington and Penzance. It is run as part of GWR unlike the other sleeper (between Euston and Scotland) which is run by its own operator the Caledonian Sleeper.

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