Paddington station reopens

Paddington station reopens

Passengers used the Tube at Ealing Broadway to get into London

Paddington train station reopened just before 1400 BST on Tuesday, according to Network Rail, bringing some relief to travellers ahead of the evening rush hour.

Commuters returning to work after the Easter break had a troubled journey on Tuesday morning as the mainline station remained closed after weekend engineering work overran.

Travellers from the West of England and south Wales had to change at Reading and Ealing Broadway for connections into London.

Hundreds of passengers crowded into Ealing Broadway where they were controlled by cordons and dozens of staff and security guards.

Train companies were selling tickets on stalls and using hand-held machines in the precinct outside the station to ease the crush.

I'm seething - it's incredibly galling

Malcolm Bell, South West Tourism

By noon crowds had eased, although passengers were still queuing along the stairways and walkways between platforms.

Services were initially scheduled to resume at 0420 BST on Tuesday after four days of signalling work shut the station, which serves 60,000 people a day.

But works were delayed by high winds and the station was not able to open in time for the morning rush hour.

Trains from First Great Western, Thames Trains and Virgin Cross Country were affected and the Heathrow Express was suspended.

Accountant Paul Mansbridge had been trying to meet three colleagues at Paddington before heading to a meeting in Swindon.

'A nightmare'

He said: "I went all the way to Paddington and everything was cancelled. They were just putting the signs up as I got there.

"We have to go to see a client and at the moment we have lost our fourth person and we are late. It has been a nightmare."

"We got off the train but it was so overcrowded that they were herding us."

A First Great Western spokesman said it was "very disappointing" that work had not been completed on time.

He added: "Although a lot of people are still on holiday, we had a large number of people who had booked to return to London today after spending Easter in Devon and Cornwall."

'Letting visitors down'

Malcolm Bell, chief executive of South West Tourism, was angry holidaymakers had been told they could travel back to London on Tuesday morning.

He said: "I'm seething. It's incredibly galling.

"We were giving advice that it would be open by Tuesday.

"I feel that we were letting our visitors down by encouraging people, telling them they could be going back."

John Curley, Network Rail's regional director, apologised for the disruption to passengers and for longer journey times.

Victoria bus station is also closed for 10 weeks because of improvement works.