Great Western Railway services cancelled after cracks found in trains

Great Western Railway services have been cancelled after hairline cracks were found in a number of its high-speed trains.

A spokesperson for GWR said that cracks were found in the suspension of a number of its Hitachi 800 trains and that all such trains were now having to be checked.

A GWR spokesperson said: “A number of Class 800 series Hitachi trains from several train companies have been taken out of service today for checks as a precautionary measure. This problem is being investigated by Hitachi and once trains have been checked, we hope to be able to release them back into service as soon as possible.

“This will affect a significant number of today’s Intercity services and local lines are also likely to be extremely busy.  Customers are advised not to travel.  Refunds will be provided and customers should visit gwr.com for more information.”

All high-speed GWR services between London, Bristol, Cardiff and Penzance have been cancelled as a result.  The trains will be returned to service as soon as possible once they have been checked, but until then, services will be severely disrupted. 

Services on Great Western operating to/from Hungerford, Newbury and Thatcham this weekend are already disrupted until 0500 on Monday due to planned engineering work.