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Paddington station is a major National Rail and London Underground station complex in the Paddington area of London, England. The site is a historic one, having served as the London terminus of the Great Western Railway and its successors since 1838. Much of the current mainline station dates back to 1854, and was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The site was first served by Underground trains in 1863, and was the original western terminus of the Metropolitan Railway, the worlds first underground railway. Despite its historic nature, and the need to preserve many of its features, the complex has recently been modernised, and has added a new role as the terminus of the dedicated Heathrow Express service to Heathrow Airport. The complex is in Travelcard Zone 1.
National Rail The National Rail station is officially named London Paddington, a name that is commonly used outside London, but rarely by Londoners•. Parts of the station, including the main train shed, date back to 1854, when it was built as the London terminus for Brunel's Great Western Railway. Today it is one of seventeen UK railway stations managed by Network Rail. History
Services Paddington is the London terminus for long distance trains, operated by First Great Western, to the West Country, Bristol, Bath and South Wales. It also acts as the terminus for shorter distance commuter services to West London and the Thames Valley, also operated by First Great Western. Two services from Paddington serve Heathrow Airport; the Heathrow Express travels non-stop whilst the Heathrow Connect service runs along the same route but calling at intermediate stations. Paddington also serves as an alternative London terminal for Chiltern Railways' service to Birmingham, used when London Marylebone is inaccessible for engineering or other reasons and for one timetabled service per day. It is proposed that proposed Crossrail line 1 will serve Paddington. All national rail services serving London Paddington are summarised in the following table: London Underground The London Underground part of Paddington station involves stops on several lines: the Hammersmith & City Line at a surface station on the north side of the main line station and parallel with it; the District Line and Circle Line in a cutting in front of the main line station and perpendicular to it; and the Bakerloo Line in deep-level tubes below the main line station. On the London Underground map, the two parts are listed as seperate stations, due to their distance from each other. History As originally built, there were three separate stations on lines that became part of the London Underground. On 10 January 1863 the Metropolitan Railway opened the first underground railway, running from Paddington (Bishop's Road) to Farringdon. The platforms serving this line were on the north side of the mainline station with the tunnel entrance under Praed Street. There was a connection to the GWR mainline which allowed it to run regular services onto the GWR's Hammersmith branch. The station was renamed "Paddington" on 10 September 1933. From the 1930s until the late 1960s the Metropolitan Line and GWR suburban services shared a group of four platforms, but the Underground is now entirely separate and forms Paddington station on the Hammersmith & City Line. In 1868 the Metropolitan Railway opened a new branch to South Kensington, with a station called Paddington (Praed Street) in a cutting across that street south of the mainline station. This station was renamed to simply "Paddington" on 11 July 1948 and now serves the Circle and District Lines. It is linked to the mainline station and the Bakerloo line by a footway that passes underneath Praed Street and the Great Western Hotel. The deep-level Baker Street and Waterloo Railway — now the Bakerloo Line — opened on 1 December 1913, with platforms underneath the mainline station. The station today Today the District/Circle line platforms and the Bakerloo line platforms are linked by an underground corridor under Praed Street within the fare paid area. They can be regarded as a single station, and are shown as such on the tube map. The platforms of the Hammermith & City Line station are still quite separate from the other Underground platforms, and are shown as a separate station on the tube map. However they are almost indistinguishable from the mainline platforms alongside them. Interchange between the District/Circle/Bakerloo lines and the Hammersmith & City lines involves walking the length of the mainline station outside the London Underground barrier lines, although the ticket barriers are programmed to permit changing between the two stations as part of a single journey. Services The three pairs of platforms that make up the various sections of Paddington Underground station are served by four different services. Two of the original four platforms of the old Bishop's Road station are used by the Hammersmith & City Line and served by trains running between Hammersmith and Barking stations. The platforms of the old Praed Street station are shared between trains of the Circle Line, and trains of the District Line running between Wimbledon and Edgware Road stations. The platforms of the deep level tube line are served by trains of the Bakerloo Line running between Elephant & Castle and Queen's Park stations.• All London Underground services serving Paddington are summarised in the following table: The station in fiction
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