Reading railway station
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Reading | |||
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|---|---|---|---|
| Location | |||
| Place | Reading | ||
| Local authority | Reading | ||
| Operations | |||
| Managed by | First Great Western | ||
| Platforms in use | 12 | ||
| Annual Passenger Usage | |||
| 2004/05 ** | 13.297 million | ||
| History | |||
| Key dates | Opened 1840 | ||
| National Rail - UK railway stations | |||
| Annual passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Reading. | |||
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Reading railway station (formerly Reading General) is a major rail transport hub in the large town of Reading in southern 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.
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[edit] 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, other than a few special summer-only 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, Bedwyn, Oxford and London Paddington, are also operated by First Great Western. Direct services to Brighton via Basingstoke are provided every few hours by South West Trains. 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.
These services are summarised in the following table:
| Preceding station | National Rail | Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Terminus | South West Trains Waterloo-Reading |
Earley | ||
| Terminus | South West Trains Reading-Brighton |
Basingstoke | ||
| London Paddington or Slough |
First Great Western Intercity services Great Western Main Line |
Didcot Parkway | ||
| First Great Western Intercity services Berks and Hants Line |
Theale | |||
| London Paddington | First Great Western Night Riviera |
Taunton | ||
| Twyford | First Great Western Commuter services Great Western Main Line |
Tilehurst | ||
| First Great Western Commuter services Paddington-Bedwyn |
Reading West | |||
| Terminus | First Great Western Commuter services Basingstoke branch |
Reading West | ||
| Terminus | First Great Western Commuter services North Downs Line |
Winnersh | ||
| Oxford | Virgin Trains Virgin Cross Country |
Basingstoke | ||
| Virgin Trains Virgin Cross Country |
Kensington (Olympia) | |||
| Virgin Trains Virgin Cross Country |
Guildford | |||
[edit] History
Reading station opened on the 30 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 through 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 railway's 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.
T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) lost the 250,000-word first draft of his Seven Pillars of Wisdom at the station when he misplaced his briefcase while changing trains in 1919. Working from memory, as he had destroyed his notes after completion of the first draft, he then completed a 400,000-word second draft in three months.
German aircraft tried to bomb the lines in to the station during the beginning of World War 2.
In 1965 Reading Southern, the South Eastern station, was closed, and the services using it diverted into a newly constructed terminal platform in the General 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.
On October 23, 1993, an IRA bomb exploded at a signal post near the station, some hours after 5 lb (2 kg) of Semtex was found in the toilets of the station. The resulting closure of the railway line and evacuation of the station caused travel chaos for several hours, but no-one was injured.
[edit] 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 east and west of the station, and the fact that north-south trains need to reverse direction in the station, render the station an acknowledged bottleneck with passenger trains often needing to wait outside the station for a platform to become 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. The local Unitary Council announced a scheme projected to cost £78 million early in 2006. Meanwhile the problems have been mitigated 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 for reversing.[1]
Irrespective of railway developments, but likely to be accelerated by them, local authority plans show a comprehensive redevelopment of the area between the town centre and the river, including the station, by 2020.
[edit] References
- ^ £78m Plan To Relieve Reading ‘Bottleneck’. railnews.co.uk. Retrieved on May 14, 2006.
[edit] External links
- Train times and station information for Reading railway station from National Rail
- Street map and aerial photo of Reading railway station from Multimap.com
- One traveller's biased view with a number of photographs
[edit] Sources
- Lawrence Waters (1990). Rail Centres: Reading. Ian Allan Ltd. ISBN 0-7110-1937-1.
- Daphne Phillips (1980). The Story of Reading. Countryside Books. ISBN 0-905392-07-8.
- Stuart Hylton (2004). Reading - Events, people and places over the last 100 years. Sutton Publishing Limited. ISBN 0-7509-3906-0.
| Major UK railway stations |
|---|
| Managed by Network Rail: Birmingham New Street • Edinburgh Waverley • Gatwick Airport • Glasgow Central • Leeds City • Liverpool Lime Street • Manchester Piccadilly |
| Managed by train operator: Aberdeen • Belfast Central • Birmingham Snow Hill • Brighton • Bristol Temple Meads • Cardiff Central • Crewe • Derby • Doncaster • Dundee • Glasgow Queen Street • Hull • Manchester Victoria • Newcastle • Nottingham • Reading • Sheffield • York |
| Railway stations of London: Central area | Greater London |
| Managed by Network Rail: Cannon Street • Charing Cross • Euston • Fenchurch Street • King's Cross • Liverpool Street • London Bridge • Paddington • Victoria • Waterloo |
| Managed by train operator: Blackfriars • Marylebone • Moorgate • St Pancras |
