Great Western main line |
| | | ca | | | de | | | en | | | es | | | fr | | | it | | | nl | | | no | | | pl | | | pt | | | ru | | | ro | | | fi | | | sv | | | tr | | | vo | | |
| |  |
The Great Western Main Line is a main line railway in England that runs westwards from London Paddington station to Temple Meads station in Bristol. The term is also used to denote a wider group of routes, see Associated routes below.
It is the original route of the pre-1948 Great Western Railway which was subsequently taken over by the Western Region of British Railways and is now part of the Network Rail system.
Contents |
History
The first section of the Great Western Railway was opened from London to a temporary station on the east side of the Thames at Maidenhead on 4 June 1838. The remaining line was opened in stages as the engineering works were completed:
- Maidenhead to Twyford – 1 July 1839
- Twyford to Reading – 30 March 1840
- Reading to Steventon – 1 June 1840
- Steventon to Farington Road – 20 June 1840
- Faringdon Road to Hay Lane – 17 December 1840
- Hay Lane to Chippenham – 31 May 1841
- Chippenham to Bath – 30 June 1841
- Bath to Bristol – 31 August 1840
The original 7 ft 0¼ in (2,140 mm) broad gauge was supplemented by a third rail to allow "narrow" gauge 4 ft 8½ in (1,435 mm) trains to operate over the route in various stages between 1854 and 1875, but the broad gauge rail was retained until the last empty trains had been worked back from Penzance on 21 May 1892. The dates that the sections were mixed were:
- London to Reading – 1 October 1861
- Reading to Didcot – 22 December 1856
- Didcot to Swindon – February 1872
- Swindon to Thingley Junction, Chippenham – June 1874
- Thingley Junction to Bathampton – 16 March 1875
- Bathampton to Bristol – June 1874
- Bristol station area – 29 May 1854
The original two tracks have been widened to four at several places:
- Paddington to Southall – 1 October 1877
- Southall to West Drayton – 25 November 1878
- West Drayton to Slough – 1 June 1879
- Slough to east side of Maidenhead Bridge – 8 September 1884
- Maidenhead Bridge to Reading – 4 June 1893
- Reading station – 1899
- Reading to Pangbourne – 30 July 1893
- Pangbourne to Cholsey & Moulsford –
- Cholsey & Moulsford to Didcot – 27 December 1892
- Various short sections between Didcot and Swindon, and at Bristol
Services
Main line and local services are provided by First Great Western (FGW). The stations served by express trains between London Paddington and Bristol Temple Meads are: Slough,Reading, Didcot Parkway, Swindon, Chippenham, and Bath Spa. Not all trains call at all of these stations, especially Slough and Didcot.
Fast trains from Paddington to Heathrow Airport are operated by BAA as the Heathrow Express . Local services on this route are jointly operated by FGW and BAA under the Heathrow Connect name.
CrossCountry operate trains between Reading and Oxford, using the Great Western Main Line as far as Didcot and South West Trains operate a limited number of trains between Bath and Bristol.
Infrastructure
The line speed is 125 mph (200 km/h) from London to Wootton Bassett and 100 mph (160 km/h) from there to Bristol, having been upgraded during the 1970s to support the introduction of the Intercity 125 (HST). The relief lines from Paddington to Didcot are currently limited to 90 mph (144 km/h) as far as Airport Junction, 75 mph (120 km/h) from there to Reading, and then 100 mph to Didcot. Lower restrictions apply at various locations.
It is one of only two Network Rail-owned lines to be equipped with the Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system, the other being the Chiltern Main Line. Network Rail intends to replace the ATP system with ETCS – Level 2[1] in the future alongside the introduction of the new IEP trains.
The line is electrified at 25 kV AC overhead between Paddington and Airport Junction, the junction with the line to Heathrow Airport near Hayes.
Associated routes
Trains on the Great Western Main Line are sometimes diverted from Reading along the Reading to Plymouth Line as far as Westbury, from where they can use the Wessex Main Line to reach either Chippenham and Swindon, or Bath Spa and Bristol Temple Meads.
Beyond Bristol, some trains continue on the Bristol to Taunton Line to Weston-super-Mare or beyond.
The Network Rail 2007 Business Plan includes the following routes as part of their Great Western Main Line (Route 13):
- Didcot to