READING REDEVELOPMENT
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The Reading redevelopment is Network Rail’s biggest upgrade project outside of London. At £850 million the regeneration is not coming cheap, but its importance cannot be underestimated - it will free up desperately-needed capacity, and untangle a bottleneck on the railway that is only likely to get worse.
With London only about 30 minutes away by rail, the Berkshire town is an attractive proposition to businesses. It is also home to a thriving business community, with major employers such as Microsoft, the NHS, ING and Oracle based there.
But this brings its own problems. At peak times Reading station is therefore used not only by London commuters going out of the town, but also by employees of the many local businesses coming in.
More people want to travel there, but there is less space to fit them in. Network Rail says that 700 trains per day use the station, bringing 14 million passengers per year. This, it says, will double to 28 million by 2030. Clearly something needs to be done.
The station, which is managed by First Great Western, currently has 12 platforms - four are through platforms, with the rest bay platforms. There are four through passenger lines, as well as three through lines used exclusively by freight trains.
Three operators - CrossCountry, First Great Western and South West Trains - use the station. FGW is by far the main user - all of its trains, including Thames Valley Turbos and High Speed Trains, call there.
Freight that passes through is mainly aggregates from the Mendips heading to London. But other traffic, including steel and intermodal, must also be accommodated.
More freight trains approach the station from the west on the Great Western Main Line, and then use an avoiding line that bypasses the station, allowing the trains direct access to the busy port of Southampton via Basingstoke. The problem here is that intermodal trains are often very long and need to cross all the GWML tracks via points to reach the avoiding line, which bends around behind the Turbo depot. This can hold up passenger trains awaiting their path west towards Didcot.
The Mendips stone trains can also delay passenger trains, as these heavy and long trains also need to criss-cross the station’s complicated trackwork to gain access to tracks taking them towards London.
And then there is the waiting. Few passengers will have been on a train going straight into Reading without a delay. Coming from London they will often be held just to the east of the station, while the train that they are following clears the station. From the west (Didcot) they will travel much slower, and end up waiting for a few minutes by the West Yard while trains clear their path into the station. Trains from the South West that travel past the depot also get delayed. This adds minutes to journeys and creates unnecessary delays.
The solution is impressive and extensive… read more in RAIL 652, on sale 08/09/2010
