Windsor and Eton Central Trains Closed Sunday 20 September

No trains run between Slough and Windsor and Eton Central on Sunday 20 September, and the replacement buses go to a different Windsor station.

Network Rail is replacing track in the Slough station area, and Sunday is the last of four closure dates this month on the Windsor branch.

For anyone travelling in for a day at Windsor Castle, the practical change is small but easy to get wrong: buses terminate at Windsor and Eton Riverside, not at Central.

Sunday Is the Last of Four Closure Dates

The work has been running across several September weekends, and this is the end of it for the branch.

Trains did not run between Slough and Windsor and Eton Central on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 September, nor on Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 September. Sunday 20 September is the fourth and final date.

Network Rail engineers are replacing track and carrying out maintenance in the Slough station area, work the company says supports services between Slough and Windsor as well as between Reading and London Paddington.

Mark Morrison, lead portfolio manager for Network Rail’s Great Western route, described it as essential track renewal and asked passengers to check before travelling and allow extra time.

The Bus Goes to Riverside, Not Central

This is the detail that decides where you get off, and it is deliberate rather than accidental.

Replacement buses operate between Slough and Windsor and Eton Riverside. They do not run to Windsor and Eton Central, which is the station the branch line normally serves.

Mian Sarwar, GWR’s station manager for Slough and Maidenhead, said the replacement services run to Riverside because that station offers greater flexibility for passengers.

Both stations are in central Windsor, so this is a matter of a short walk rather than a different town. But a visitor following a phone map to Central will be waiting at a closed platform, and a visitor expecting to be dropped at Central will be dropped somewhere else.

From Reading There Is an All Rail Option

The second thing worth knowing is that not everyone needs the bus.

Passengers travelling between Reading and Windsor and Eton Riverside can use South Western Railway services via Staines on Sunday 20 September, as they could on 5 and 12 September.

That is a longer route on the map and an entirely normal train journey in practice, which on a replacement bus weekend is usually the better trade.

It also lands at Riverside, the same station the buses use, so the Windsor end of the journey is identical either way.

Paddington to Reading Is Amended Too

The branch closure is the visible part. The larger disruption is on the main line.

Services between Reading and London Paddington run to amended timetables while the work is under way, because only two of the four tracks through the area are available.

That matters to far more people than the Windsor shuttle does, and it is the part most likely to affect a connection. Anyone coming out of Paddington on Sunday should check the booked train rather than assume the usual frequency.

Two tracks instead of four on a Sunday is a workable timetable, not a crisis, but it removes the slack that makes a missed connection recoverable.

Next Sunday Is the Reverse

One more date is worth carrying, because it inverts the pattern.

On Sunday 27 September, services between Reading and London Paddington will again run to amended timetables. Trains between Slough and Windsor and Eton Central will operate normally that day.

So a Windsor visitor on the 27th has their branch train back, and a Paddington to Reading passenger still has a changed timetable.

If the trip is flexible and the destination is Windsor, the 27th is the easier Sunday of the two.

Getting to Windsor Castle on Sunday

For a day visitor the adjustment is mostly about arrival time and a short walk.

Coming from London Paddington, the route is the amended main line service to Slough and then the replacement bus to Riverside. Coming from London Waterloo, South Western Railway runs to Riverside as normal and is untouched by this work.

The Waterloo route is the quiet answer for Sunday. It is slower on paper and completely unaffected by any of this.

Once in Windsor, the town centre is compact enough that the station you arrive at changes the walk rather than the day, and the castle, river and town route works from either.

Deep Arrival has covered how quickly a British rail weekend reshapes a city visit: Liverpool Lime Street closes to overground trains on 8 November for the same kind of track work.

What to Check Before You Set Off

Network Rail and GWR give the same four instructions, and they are worth following in order.

Check the journey in advance at gwr.com/upgrade. Allow extra time, particularly for onward connections. Consider travelling earlier or later to avoid the busier services. Sign up for journey alerts for real time updates.

The detail behind all of it sits in Network Rail’s notice for the Slough area work, which lists every affected date in one place.

Local coverage from the Slough paper carries the same dates for anyone who wants a second reading of them.

The single sentence to remember on Sunday morning: the train to Central is not running, and the bus goes to Riverside.

The Reading Option Was Not Offered on Every Date

One line in the notice repays a second reading, because it shows the alternatives are not uniform across the four dates.

Network Rail names the South Western Railway route between Reading and Windsor and Eton Riverside via Staines for Saturday 5 September, Saturday 12 September and Sunday 20 September. It does not name it for Sunday 6 or Sunday 13 September.

So Sunday 20 September is one of the better dates to be caught by this, not one of the worse ones. The all rail option exists tomorrow and did not exist on two of the earlier closure days.

The general point holds beyond this branch. On a multi weekend engineering programme the replacement arrangements are rebuilt for each date, and an alternative that worked a fortnight ago is not guaranteed to be there today.

That is the argument for reading the notice for the specific date rather than remembering what happened last time.