Reading railway station

Reading (or Reading General) is a railway station in the large town of Reading in south central England. It is situated on the northern edge of the town centre, some 5 minutes walk from the main retail and commercial areas, and close to the River Thames. Adjacent to the railway station is a bus interchange, served by most of Reading's urban and rural bus services.

Reading is a major junction point on the national rail system, and as a consequence the railway station is a major transfer point as well as serving heavy originating and terminating traffic.

Railway services

The main rail route served by the station is the Great Western Main Line, which runs west from London's Paddington station before splitting to the west of Reading station into two lines, one serving the West Country, and the other Bristol, Bath and South Wales. Services on these lines are operated by First Great Western, and all services stop at Reading.

Other main lines connect Reading with Birmingham (serving both New Street and International stations), northern England and Scotland to the north, and with Winchester, Southampton and Bournemouth to the south. Through services from north to south on these lines are operated by Virgin Trains, and all services stop in Reading.

A secondary line connects Reading with Guildford and Gatwick Airport. Services on this line, together with local stopping services to Basingstoke, Newbury, Oxford and London Paddington are operated by First Great Western Link. An electric suburban line operated by South West Trains links Reading to London Waterloo station. An express bus service operated by First Great Western links Reading with Heathrow Airport.

History

Reading station opened on the 30th March 1840 as the temporary western terminus of the original line of the Great Western Railway. At a stroke the time taken to travel from London to Reading was reduced to one hour and five minutes, less than a quarter of the time taken by the fastest stagecoach. The line was extended to its intended terminus at Bristol in 1841. As constructed, Reading station was a typical Brunel designed single-sided intermediate station, with separate up and down platforms situated to the south of the through tracks and arranged so that all up trains calling at Reading had to cross the route of all down trains.

New routes soon joined the London to Bristol line, with the line from Reading to Newbury and Hungerford opening in 1847, and the line to Basingstoke in 1848. In 1849 the South Eastern Railway reached Reading with a line from Guildford and Reigate, initially serving a temporary station at North Forbury before moving into its own separate permanent terminal station, just to the south east of the Great Western station, in 1855. In 1856 the London and South Western Railway opened a line from its London terminus at Waterloo to Wokingham, with its trains continuing over the South Eastern line to that railways terminus in Reading.

At some time between 1859 and 1865, the Great Western Signal Works were constructed on lower ground to the north of the station. These works grew until by 1872 they were employing 500 men and producing most of the signalling equipment used by the Great Western Railway. The signal works continued in existence until 1984.

In 1860 a new station building, in Bath stone and incorporating a tower and clock, was constructed for the Great Western Railway. In 1898 the single sided station was replaced by a conventional design with 'up', 'down' and 'relief' platforms linked by a pedestrian subway.

In 1965 the South Eastern station was closed, and the services using it diverted into a newly constructed terminal platform in the main station. A second terminal platform serving the same line was opened in 1975 for the commencement of the service from Reading to Gatwick Airport.

For some years the site of the South Eastern station was used as the station car park. However in 1989 a brand new station concourse, included a shopping arcade named for Brunel, opened on the western end of the old South Eastern station site, linked to the platforms of the main station by a new footbridge. At the same time a new multi-level station car park was built, on the site of the former goods yard and signal works to the north of the station, and linked to the same footbridge. The station facilities in the 1860 station building were converted into the Three Guineas public house.

Future developments

To serve the traffic described above, Reading station currently has four through platforms and eight terminal platforms. The limited number of through platforms, together with flat junctions immediately to the east and west of the station, and the fact that north-south trains need to reverse direction in the station, mean that the station is a choke point with trains often having to wait outside the station for a platform to be available.

Plans were produced by Railtrack for a major redevelopment of the station, with rail track on two levels. Since the demise of Railtrack and its replacement by Network Rail, the status of these plans is unclear. There is sufficient space for extra through platforms on the north side of the station, and even a disused rail underpass at the junction to the east, and there have been suggestions in the press to use these for a quicker and cheaper solution. In the meantime the problems have been somewhat reduced by the introduction of more frequent but shorter trains on Virgin Trains' routes, which are able to use the shorter terminal platforms rather than using a through platform to reverse in.

Irrespective of railway developments, local authority plans show a comprehensive redevelopment of the area between the town centre and the river, including the station, by 2020.

External links

• Train times for Reading railway station from National Rail
• Street map and aerial photo of Reading railway station from Multimap.com

Sources

• Lawrence Waters (1990). Rail Centres: Reading. Ian Allan Ltd. ISBN 0711019371.
• Daphne Phillips (1980). The Story of Reading. Countryside Books. ISBN 0905392078.
• Stuart Hylton (2004). Reading – Events, people and places over the last 100 years. Sutton Publishing Limited. ISBN 0750939060.