First Great Western (FGW) and Network Rail plan to restore the majority ofservices into and out of London Paddington from Monday (17th February).

Mark Carne, Network Rail's new chief executive will take up his new role from Monday 24th February, slightly earlier than originally planned.

Immense efforts by hundreds of rail engineers overnight have seen scores of trees removed from blocked lines, over a dozen dewirements repaired and hundreds of pieces of debris cleared of the track across Wales and the north of England.

Services to the South West out of Paddington continue to be the most disrupted as a result of flooding at Maidenhead and storm damage at Dawlish. Advice to passengers is avoid Paddington if at all possble today as services are very limited.

Nationally, the vast majority of routes are open and services are operating normally.

Network Rail engineers are out across the South from Oxford to Oxted pumping water away from the railway and monitoring flood sites.

Passengers are being advised not to travel out of Paddington today unless absolutely necessary as flooding along the Thames Valley has caused severe problems for running trains through the Maidenhead area

Network Rail today announced that it was accepting the Office of Rail Regulation’s conclusion for funding to maintain and improve Britain’s railway over the next five years

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