Thousands miss Queen’s funeral as rail disruption at Paddington persists
Thousands of mourners are missing the Queen’s funeral, resorting to watching the proceedings on their phones due to the ongoing rail disruption at Paddington station.
Services between Paddington and Reading have stopped running since earlier this morning as a result of issues to overhead electric wires.
Heathrow Express and Elizabeth line services are also affected.
Network Rail informed passengers heading to royal sites such as Windsor to travel via other stations – including London Waterloo and Staines.
Those coming into London have been advised to change at Reading instead.
“We are very sorry for the disruption which we expect to continue throughout the day,” a Network Rail spokesperson said.
“We will continue to update passengers as the situation develops.”
Despite Network Rail’s apologies, people took it to Twitter to complain about the disruption on such a historical day.
One user, looking for alternative routes between Reading and London, said: “They had one job… today of all days!”
While another tweeted at Southern Rail and said: “Failed trains, whole network between Reading and Paddington down. Are you going to do anything about this?”
The issues come during one of the biggest operations for the UK’s railway network as more than one million people are expected to descend into London to pay their respects to the monarch.
Network Rail told mourners to avoid rushing home after the state funeral to avoid cramming services.
“Cafe, pubs and other hospitality providers around London are expected to be open this afternoon, so please don’t rush home immediately following the State Funeral and final procession so you can continue marking this historic day and help ease pressure on the rail network,” it tweeted on Monday morning.