Big trackside development west of Reading railway station
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TitanSound
Mr Beardy Drummer
Something to do with Crossrail?
Maurice Picarda
Actually, might as well flounce.
Crossrail and Airtrack platforms?
QueenOfGoths
Fuck you Dave!
At the moment Crossrail is not due to go as far as Reading (though I suspect it will).
Reading station is being undergoing a major so I think it is likely to be that
"Reading Remodelling
Network Rail is working closely with Reading Borough Council on this Government funded programme to tackle the bottle neck at Reading, one of the most critical rail hubs in Britain. Reading’s current track layout and signalling severely limits the number of services that can travel through the station. The project has funding of £425m to deliver a 37% improvement in train service performance reliability in the Reading area by 2015.
Reading will benefit from this project as will the many destinations that Reading serves, including London Paddington, Bristol, South Wales, Cornwall and Oxford, along with London Waterloo, Gatwick Airport and the south coast.
The scheme will optimise capacity and provide flexibility in timetabling along and across the Great Western Mainline routes. The scheme’s benefits include:
Reading station is being undergoing a major so I think it is likely to be that
"Reading Remodelling
Network Rail is working closely with Reading Borough Council on this Government funded programme to tackle the bottle neck at Reading, one of the most critical rail hubs in Britain. Reading’s current track layout and signalling severely limits the number of services that can travel through the station. The project has funding of £425m to deliver a 37% improvement in train service performance reliability in the Reading area by 2015.
Reading will benefit from this project as will the many destinations that Reading serves, including London Paddington, Bristol, South Wales, Cornwall and Oxford, along with London Waterloo, Gatwick Airport and the south coast.
The scheme will optimise capacity and provide flexibility in timetabling along and across the Great Western Mainline routes. The scheme’s benefits include:
- Five additional 10-car platforms will be introduced to increase passenger and freight capacity on routes from London to the South West and Wales
- An increase in the number of through platforms of 75% to allow faster and more reliable services
- A new underpass at the West End of the station for the Main Lines will further increase capacity and prevent delays to both passenger and freight trains crossing the main lines
- A new northern entrance for passengers from the Caversham area, supporting regeneration to this side of Reading"
souljacker
innit
Yep, new bridge at Cow Lane.
Anyone who has ever had to get from Caversham in North Reading to Tilehurst in the West, will know what a monumental fuck up cow lane is. It's two railway bridges, one of which is a light controlled single lane, one that is two lanes, as long as neither vehicle is wider than a standard car, in which case it's single lane. In the mornings, it's a shocking traffic snarl up. When Reading Festival is on, it's a disaster.
However, a new bridge is going in as we speak so both bridges have been closed since 23rd December (I think) and reopen on 19th Jan. Now it will be 4 lanes, no lights, a cycle lane and pedestrian pavement. They actually built the bridge next to the old ones in the build up to christmas, then rolled it in on Tuesday. I think thats only one bridge being replaced, so I'm not sure about the second one.
It's being done as part of the massive regeneration of Reading station, which has always been a bottleneck due to it's limited number of tracks. The bridge on Caversham Road was widened last christmas (very cool video here: http://www.gifford.uk.com/news-and-...ne-bridge-replacement-at-reading-station-302/) and the beginnings of new tracks are going in at the station.
Nothing to do with Crossrail sadly. There was a great deal of whining by the local MPs, but I'm pretty sure crossrail will terminate in Maidenhead.
Anyone who has ever had to get from Caversham in North Reading to Tilehurst in the West, will know what a monumental fuck up cow lane is. It's two railway bridges, one of which is a light controlled single lane, one that is two lanes, as long as neither vehicle is wider than a standard car, in which case it's single lane. In the mornings, it's a shocking traffic snarl up. When Reading Festival is on, it's a disaster.
However, a new bridge is going in as we speak so both bridges have been closed since 23rd December (I think) and reopen on 19th Jan. Now it will be 4 lanes, no lights, a cycle lane and pedestrian pavement. They actually built the bridge next to the old ones in the build up to christmas, then rolled it in on Tuesday. I think thats only one bridge being replaced, so I'm not sure about the second one.
It's being done as part of the massive regeneration of Reading station, which has always been a bottleneck due to it's limited number of tracks. The bridge on Caversham Road was widened last christmas (very cool video here: http://www.gifford.uk.com/news-and-...ne-bridge-replacement-at-reading-station-302/) and the beginnings of new tracks are going in at the station.
Nothing to do with Crossrail sadly. There was a great deal of whining by the local MPs, but I'm pretty sure crossrail will terminate in Maidenhead.
davesgcr
Reading books
Even if Crossrail stops at Maidenhead (which is nonsense from a practical and a service point of view) - - Reading needs a major revitalisation railway job which is happening and is nearly 50% done now. New fast electric trains to replace diesels from 2017 or so - !!! (main line and suburban)
souljacker
innit
Video of the new bridge going in:
editor
hiraethified
There's a ton of work going on at Reading over the weekend, They've got 2,000 workers there building five new platforms, a new passenger footbridge, escalators, lifts and a viaduct along - plus other improvements.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-21522903
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-21522903
Mrs Magpie
On a bit of break...
Last July when I came through Reading on the train we crawled along through it. It's been going on for ages.
davesgcr
Reading books
The Bristol and Swansea trains are doing the diversion route via Old Oak Common , Ruislip , Banbury (reverse using those nice new semaphore signals BS33 and BS27) - first stop Oxford , then also goig via the rare Didcot West Curve to Swindon thence as booked. 1hr 20 mins longer.
Course I went for a ride out to Oxford on it yesterday (and back via Coventry and Euston)
- a tidy dy out.
Course I went for a ride out to Oxford on it yesterday (and back via Coventry and Euston)
- a tidy dy out.
Bahnhof Strasse
Met up with Hannah Courtoy a week next Tuesday
Due to Reading station being done trains from Tiverton to London went via Basingstoke to Waterloo yesterday. Which was fucking handy for me as it meant I could get straight home with no piddling about 
souljacker
innit
I've been through the new station a few times since it opened. It is fucking massive! A huge wide open area with big windows and loads of space. Currently, there is just the one concession, a Starbucks. But I expect all the other space will be slowly filled with other shit chain stuff.
I'm not sure its sorted out the train bottleneck though. There is still a long wait on the Paddington train when you come in to Reading at rush hour. One slight benefit is that I get off the train and leave by the north exit, thereby bypassing the attractions of the Three Guineas Pub. So I've saved a few quid there.
I'm not sure its sorted out the train bottleneck though. There is still a long wait on the Paddington train when you come in to Reading at rush hour. One slight benefit is that I get off the train and leave by the north exit, thereby bypassing the attractions of the Three Guineas Pub. So I've saved a few quid there.
davesgcr
Reading books
Not all the track layout has been commissioned yet (hence the bunching of trains still going on...) -this will be greatly improved when done as everything for South Wales , Bristol and the W of England had / have to basically go through one platform westbound.
Bham New Street will shortly re-appear from behind a mass of hoardings (stage 1) - to give an unheard of "ambience and space" - sorry , better calm down. This is New Street....
Bham New Street will shortly re-appear from behind a mass of hoardings (stage 1) - to give an unheard of "ambience and space" - sorry , better calm down. This is New Street....
SikhWarrioR
And the Worms ate into his brain
The re-developement of Birmingham New Street has not tackled the real problems of New Street namely train access and exit plus platform capacity
Crispy
The following psytrance is baṉned: All
My HST from Bristol went over it today
"This is a bit elevated for a Bristol train," I thought to myself, and then noticed how new the concrete looked
(Also noticed lots of gantries awaiting the overhead power lines)
Just been on a train over it. A bit of a 'hang on where the fuck are we??' moment at first.
Heading back from W-o-T by any chance? If you were: snap!My HST from Bristol went over it today
"This is a bit elevated for a Bristol train," I thought to myself, and then noticed how new the concrete looked
(Also noticed lots of gantries awaiting the overhead power lines)
Crispy
The following psytrance is baṉned: All
You were a few hours ahead of me then. (We enjoyed watching the W-o-T NYE fireworks out of the window btw, quite impressive display for a pub. At least I think that's where they were coming from...)Yep, on the 15:01
