Passengers heading to and from Heathrow faced chaos today as the three major rail routes connecting the airport to London were all suspended due to separate issues.
The Elizabeth line was suspended between Hayes and Harlington and Heathrow terminals due to a signal failure, according to Transport for London (TfL).
Ticket were being accepted on the Piccadilly line, but that was also suspended between Acton Town and Heathrow terminals due to a fire alert at Northfields.
The Heathrow Express was also suspended in both directions due to a broken down train, leaving passengers with no rail connections in or out of the airport.
In addition, the Elizabeth line had severe delays between Paddington and Hayes and Harlington today and the Piccadilly line had minor delays on the rest of its network.
It comes after a weekend of disruption due to no Elizabeth line or Heathrow Express trains to the airport on Saturday or Sunday due to planned engineering works.
Heathrow Express passenger Fatimah tweeted the operator to say: ‘I think your driver is having trouble communicating… been 35 mins no comms, stuck on the train to Heathrow. 7.10am was cancelled, and we’re all stuck on the 7.25am. No movement. No comms.’
One passenger called Charlie from Norfolk who landed at Heathrow from Cape Town this morning tweeted: ‘Welcome back to London. Elizabeth line cancelled. Heathrow express cancelled. Major delays on the Piccadilly line. Well done, TfL.’
READ MORE What IS going wrong with the Elizabeth Line? Calls for Sadiq Khan to get a grip of TfL’s £19bn flagship line that has been beset by problems
Conductor and pianist Dorian Dimitrov was also caught up in the chaos, saying: ‘@TfL @HeathrowExpress Why are both of your services so terrible that the Express and Elizabeth line have problems to Heathrow on the same day?! You have already made me miss one flight due to delays and now may/may not make the one I had to rebook. Ridiculous.’
He later added: ‘@TfL @HeathrowExpress If you are forcing customers pay extortionate amounts for a service that is meant to be reliable then make sure that it actually works!!!!’
And X user Trevor Larwood tweeted: ‘Landed back at Heathrow guess what. No trains!!!! @TfL drive guys the best way!’
Chris Whitehead tweeted: ‘Daughter just landed at Heathrow. No tubes, no Elizabeth line, Heathrow Express delays. Welcome to Khan’s London. #SadiqKhan #TfL #Heathrow.’
Heathrow Express passenger Fatimah tweeted the operator to say: ‘I think your driver is having trouble communicating… been 35 mins no comms, stuck on the train to Heathrow. 7.10am was cancelled, and we’re all stuck on the 7.25am. No movement. No comms.’
Another passenger tweeted TfL to say: ‘Now the Piccadilly is closed to Heathrow for a fire alert… what on earth should people do who need to get to the airport? Is the Heathrow Express open again? This is urgent.’
The Elizabeth line was part suspended today. Pictured: File image of an Elizabeth line train
A further social media user said: ‘So much money invested in this Elizabeth line only for it to always have issues?!’
It comes after revealed last month how major reliability issues were continuing to plague the £18.9billion Elizabeth line which opened 18 months ago.
Passengers have been complaining for months about the regularly poor service, with some stuck on trains in tunnels and others stranded on packed station platforms.
Following this website’s investigation, Mayor Sadiq Khan apologised for the problems and admitted the service was ‘not good enough’.
* Are you caught up in today’s Heathrow rail chaos? Email: [email protected] *