In part two, a look at how construction of the huge new HS2 station at Old Oak Common will see years of Christmas closures and diversions for passengers using at Paddington.
Here’s a fully automated transcript of this episode:
From London, this is The Standard podcast, and I’m Mark Blunden.
Coming up in this episode, capital braces for days of rail closures, diversions and HS2 travel challenges at a major terminus.
And wait until you hear what’s happening in the years to come.
But first, London MPs have joined a Commons movement challenging axing winter fuel payments for millions of pensioners.
The early day motion tabled by Poole Labour MP Neil Duncan-Jordan calls for the hugely controversial restriction on winter fuel payments to be postponed.
Which politicians from London are involved in the pushback against the plans?
And what’s the significance of this test for secure Starmer’s premiership?
To discover more, we’re joined from Parliament by Evening Standard political editor Nicholas Cecil, who explains Labour’s hugely divisive winter fuel cuts plan.
In a nutshell, it means that pensioners who do not receive the pension credit will, from the autumn onwards, not get the winter fuel special payment of between 100 and 300 pounds a year.
And what the government have been saying is that they’re being forced to take these very difficult decisions because they claim that they discovered a 22 billion pound black hole in the public finances once they got into office.
Now, the Tories strongly deny that they left the public finances in such a dire state.
And the experts, independent experts, say the truth of the matter is probably halfway between what Labour and the Tories say, that yes, the public finances are in a dire strait, but actually, they were warning, these independent experts were warning about this for weeks, if not months before the general election in July.
How do EDMs work and who are the London MPs involved?
An early-day motion is basically a way of highlighting an issue in Parliament.
And so what an MP does, they put down an early-day motion and get fellow MPs to sign it.
And obviously, the more who sign it, the more weight it carries.
It doesn’t have any legal implications, but it certainly highlights the unhappiness about an issue.
So this EDM has been put down by the Poole MP, Neil Duncan in Jordan.
It’s been signed by 27 MPs, including three from London.
So so far, there’s only one current Labour MP who signed it.
That’s Bell Ribeiro-Addy.
She’s the MP for Clapham and Brixton Hill.
There are two other London MPs who were Labour MPs, John McDonnell, who’s the MP for Hayes and Harlington, and Apsana Begum, who’s the MP for Poplar and Limehouse.
They both signed it as well.
They were Labour MPs until the summer, but they were suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party when they defied the government over a debate on the two-child benefit cap.
How significant a test do you think this is for Starmer’s authority?
Well, this is a significant test for the Prime Minister.
The government has taken some measures to limit the impact of this policy in terms of if pensioners still get pension credit, they will still get the winter fuel allowance.
But independent pension experts say that there’s still some million or so pensioners who are in genuine poverty, who will lose out on the special fuel payments.
So there are dozens of Labour MPs who oppose this measure.
The question is how many will actually vote against the government, abstain or just not for the vote on Tuesday.
I suspect the Prime Minister can live with dozens not backing the policy.
It gets more tricky for him if dozens actually actively vote against the government, because then he would be forced to take a disciplinary action against possibly suspending them from the parliamentary Labour Party.
And he won’t want to do that for a large number of Labour MPs.
What’s your take on the Stammer administration’s thinking behind this hugely divisive policy?
Do you think they misread the room or it’s a deliberate strategy?
No, I think it’s a deliberate strategy by Keir Stammer and Rachel Reeves, the number 10 in the Treasury.
So, it’s very much similar to what Tony Blair did when he got into office in 1997.
So, yes, the public finances are in a very difficult situation.
But in terms of what messages we’ll send out to the financial markets and to the wider business world, is that this is a Labour government that is willing to take tough decisions and that can be trusted with the public finances.
So yes, it’s a controversial measure, but it also sends a strong message from the government to the financial community that we are responsible and sensible government.
Coming up, what years of festive closure and diversion mean for your Christmas travel plans?
Why not hit follow on this podcast in the meantime?
Building a huge new HS2 station at Old Oak Common in West London means years of Christmas disruption for London Rail Passengers.
Now full details of the festive travel woe that Great Western Railway and Elizabeth Line passengers using Paddington station face until the end of the decade can be revealed.
The West London terminus will be closed for several days over this Christmas, plus no main line services from the station on Sunday, November the 17th, as GWR reveals plans to divert passenger services for the West Country into Euston instead.
But brace yourself for 2028 when the shutdown is planned for 18 days.
Evening Standard transport editor Ross Lydall reports on Monday that GWR admits facing a huge logistical challenge with the rail operator.
Forecasting diverted journeys will take about 15 minutes longer.
And during these times, the Elizabeth line also won’t run between Ealing Broadway and Paddington.
And Ross, who’s travelled on a test trip on the GWR diversion route, joins us now to explain what’s happening, where and when.
The reason for the disruption that’s coming up this Christmas and many other Christmases is to do with HS2.
A new station is being built in North West London, the Old Oak Common station, and that will both be for HS2 trains, but also will be used by the Elizabeth line, by Great Western Railways and by Heathrow Express.
Now, what has to happen there is that the current sort of Great Western main railway line that was in and out of Paddington will be realigned to go through the middle of this new station.
But from this Christmas, and actually starting in November, there’s a one day closure in November, the track will be closed, and that is necessitating the change of where Great Western Railways trains will go in and out of in central London.
They will no longer go to Paddington, this is for the precise periods of a Christmas, not on a day to day basis.
They will go to Euston, and a couple of days ago, a Great Western staff gave the Evening Standard a ride on one of its trains to show exactly how it could get the train that normally goes into Paddington all the way around and into Euston.
What do we know about the knock-on impact for festive journeys?
We know that the first closure will be on Sunday, November 17th, and then this will be followed by a three-day closure of Paddington Station between December 27th and the 29th.
Now, this actually means it will be shut for five days because there are no trains as normal on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
So the last train in or out of Paddington will be on Christmas Eve on December 24th and they won’t restart until December 30th.
Now, this disruption will continue every festive period for the next six or seven years, possibly longer depending on how long it takes to finish the HS2 station at Old Oak Common.
The disruption will get increasingly longer.
For example, in 2028, under the current plans, Paddington station will be closed for 18 days.
The concern there is this will just affect passengers traveling over the Christmas period.
Normally, people either going to visit family or returning to family in London, but it will also impact the big return to work in early January.
So come 2028, still a few years off, obviously, but the disruption will continue until the middle of January.
And here’s a clip of Ross’ interview with GWR Operations Director Richard Rowland on the Paddington-Euston diversion route.
And our transport editor asked if passengers can expect a full timetable during the closures.
Largely, we’ll be running a similar level of service, obviously going to different places and stopping and terminating at different points, but largely it will be the same service.
And we’ve worked with the Elizabeth Line as well and Southwest Railways, because obviously some people will go down and around to Waterloo as well on the Southwest Railway service from Reading.
So, we’ve worked across the industry to make sure that we understand what the passenger flows will be and there’ll be sufficient trains to make sure people get to where they have to get to.
Ross, how much of an additional logistical problem will it be, for example, running one of those Cornwall sleeper services from one station in Paddington across to another area of London in Euston?
Great Western Railways executives admit this is really quite a huge challenge logistically.
In terms of the practicality of getting the train round, you know, the journey I was on went pretty seamlessly, although once it sort of diverted off the track at Acton and went round past Wilsden and joined the West Coast Main Line, you really couldn’t tell the difference.
The only thing you notice as a passenger is that the train seems to be trundling on rather slowly and the impact will indeed be that journeys that would normally go into Paddington will be about 15 minutes longer by the time they get round to Euston because there’s various practicalities of where it has to stop at signals.
The other practical concern is that the trains will stop at Ealing Broadway to change crew, but passengers won’t be able to get on or get off.
So, there’s a slight issue there that train staff are concerned that passengers may incorrectly try to board when actually they’re not allowed to get on trains, so the doors won’t open, so you might end up with some passengers standing on the platform that puzzled what’s happening and just the drivers will change and the other train crew.
But in terms of the company’s logistics, it has to move many staff over from Paddington to Euston, help desks, staff, and also, as from the Cornish Sleeper, as you say, called the Night Riviera Service, then you need all the people who essentially get the bunk ready, who clean the cabins and so on.
So, it’s not simple by any means.
So, almost actually hats off to GWR for doing this because it could really just have terminated all its trains at Reading or certainly some of them at Ealing Broadway, but it’s decided to try its best to get as many passengers into Central London as it can.
It may be the case that of course, passengers don’t necessarily want to be at Euston and therefore can get off the Great Western trains at Reading and change on to other services.
For example, they could change on to the South Western Railway services.
They would take them around sort of South West London and into Waterloo instead if that’s a better option than going to Euston.
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