Tilehurst railway station
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tilehurst | |||
Station buildings and footbridge. | |||
Location | |||
Place | Tilehurst | ||
Local authority | Reading | ||
Operations | |||
Managed by | First Great Western | ||
Platforms in use | 4 | ||
Annual Rail Passenger Usage | |||
2004/05 * | 0.405 million | ||
2005/06 * | 0.393 million | ||
History | |||
Key dates | Opened 1882 | ||
National Rail - UK railway stations | |||
* Annual passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Tilehurst from Office of Rail Regulation statistics. | |||
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Tilehurst railway station is a railway station in the suburb and former village of Tilehurst to the west of Reading in England. The station is served by local services operated by First Great Western.
Contents |
[edit] History
The station is on the original line of the Great Western Railway, which opened in 1841, and was itself opened to traffic in 1882.[1]
[edit] Description
Tilehurst station is situated on the extreme northern edge of the rather sprawling suburb of Tilehurst, and at a much lower level than most of that suburb. The railway line and station are squeezed into a rather narrow strip of land between the A329 road and the River Thames, with the up relief platform on an embankment above the river bank.
The station has four platforms, one on each of the fast and relief (slow) lines, although the platforms on the fast lines see little use. The platforms are linked to each other and the station entrance, on the down fast platform, by a footbridge.
[edit] Services
Tilehurst station is served by stopping services run by First Great Western between Reading and Oxford. Most of these services start or continue as semi-fast services between Reading and London Paddington, and run twice an hour throughout most of the day, but only hourly on Sundays. Typical journey times are approximately 5 minutes to Reading, 35 minutes to Oxford, and just under one hour to Paddington.[2]
Preceding station | National Rail | Following station | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Reading | First Great Western Commuter services Great Western Main Line |
Pangbourne |
[edit] In literature
Unfortunately, the railway at Tilehurst was mentioned in less than glowing terms by Jerome K. Jerome in chapter 16 of Three Men in a Boat: "The river becomes very lovely from a little above Reading. The railway rather spoils it near Tilehurst, but from Mapledurham up to Streatley it is glorious."[3]
[edit] References
- ^ Waters, Lawrence (1990). Rail Centres: Reading. Ian Allan, Ltd.. ISBN 0-7110-1937-1.
- ^ Train Times. First Great Western. Retrieved on April 12, 2007.
- ^ Jerome K. Jerome. Three Men in a Boat. Project Gutenberg. Retrieved on April 14, 2007.
[edit] External links
- Train times and station information, from National Rail