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Great Western main line

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Map of the Great Western main line. Branch lines are not shown

The Great Western main line is a main line railway in England, that runs westwards from London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads. It opened in 1841 and was the original route of the old Great Western Railway. In 1948 it became the Western Region of British Railways. It is now part of the national rail system managed by Network Rail.

Electrification

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The line was electrified from Paddington to Heathrow Airport in the late 1990s. Work to electrify the rest of the route started in 2011. The aim was to complete the work all the way to Bristol by 2016.[1] Parts of the programme have been deferred because costs have tripled. The four sections deferred are: Didcot to Oxford, Bristol Parkway to Bristol Temple Meads, Royal Wootton Bassett Junction to Bristol Temple Meads and the Thames Valley branches to Henley-on-Thames and Windsor.[2][3]

Train services

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Most trains are operated by Great Western Railway.

References

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  1. Network Rail (June 2011). "Modernising the Great Western" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 April 2013. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
  2. correspondent, Gwyn Topham Transport (21 October 2015). "Cost of Great Western mainline electrification project triples to £2.8bn" – via www.theguardian.com. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  3. Ltd, DVV Media International. "Great Western electrification projects deferred". Railway Gazette. Archived from the original on 2019-04-04. Retrieved 2019-02-15.