Train services between London Paddington and Heathrow Airport have reopened on Sunday morning, 6 September, after a grass fire beside the railway shut all rail links to the airport for several hours on Saturday evening.
National Rail said in a Sunday morning update that disruption to the Elizabeth line, Heathrow Express and Great Western Railway (GWR) had ended, according to the Evening Standard. GWR reported it was running a "good service" on the route, while the Elizabeth line resumed on an amended timetable, LBC reported.
The fire broke out beside the tracks near Scrubs Lane in North Kensington shortly after 4pm on Saturday, causing what National Rail described as "a failure of the electricity supply caused by a fire next to the track." The blaze knocked out all lines between Paddington, Reading and Heathrow's terminals, forcing Heathrow Express and Elizabeth line services to stop running in both directions and GWR to cancel its Reading services. London Fire Brigade sent six engines and around 40 firefighters to tackle the blaze. National Rail's incident page said 380 passengers were evacuated from an affected train, and had warned major disruption could last until midday on Sunday, though services returned to normal well before then.
During the shutdown, passengers travelling to or from Heathrow by rail were told to use the Piccadilly line, London buses or other alternative routes, with tickets accepted on London Underground, London buses, Thameslink, the Docklands Light Railway, Southeastern and South Western Railway between Waterloo and Reading.
The rail disruptio