01.05.13
Rebuilding Reading
Source: Rail Technology Magazine April/May 2013
More than 2,000 engineers and contractors worked round the clock over Easter on the Reading station upgrade project, and passengers can now use the station’s four new platforms, two new entrances and the spectacular new footbridge. Network Rail’s senior programme manager for the works, Graham Denny, said the work went “brilliantly”.
The Reading upgrade is one of Network Rail’s biggest projects, involving huge changes to both the station and the railway itself. The latest phase, which has just been completed over Easter and in early April, was the biggest commissioning of new track, signalling and infrastructure works at one time in the history of Network Rail.
Some of the major structural projects are already complete, such as the Caversham Road and Cow Lane bridge replacements, while the aspect most noticeable for passengers – the shiny new station – is now open too after those frantic engineering works over Easter. Network Rail said the amount of work that got done was equivalent to 20 full weekends worth of engineering time.
As a result, the station now has two new entrances, four new platforms and a new 110-metre long, 30-metre-wide passenger bridge, with escalators and lifts providing stepfree access to the new platforms.
The station is used by 14 million passengers annually, with numbers predicted to more than double by 2030, and it has long been a bottleneck for services coming into west London from the south-west, south Wales, and the south Midlands. Network Rail’s desire to unclog the bottleneck is clear – it is investing nearly £900m in the upgrade project, which also includes the construction of a new train care depot (due to open in the autumn), electrifi cation and resignalling.
The new parts of the station opened to commuters from April 2, although some lastminute works, a train breakdown and a signal failure meant the first day did not go smoothly, with overcrowded and late-running services tarnishing the experience of the new station for commuters.
The main engineering works themselves went well, as Graham Denny, Network Rail senior programme manager for the station works, said that morning, before some of the problems became apparent: “It’s gone absolutely brilliantly. We opened some of the improvements over the weekend and this morning we opened the new platforms, which were ready to receive the fi rst train when it came in at 04:40.
“The station was ready to go for passengers, and the people we’ve had through already seem very pleased with the results.”
Passenger reaction has indeed been very positive – it is a far more attractive station, with more room to move and better passenger information, while the extra platforms and planned viaduct to grade separate the railway west of the station should soon spell the end for the old cliché of being stuck on a FGW train outside Reading. The station works are due for final completion by February 2014, following the demolition of the old bridge, canopy and platform replacement, and cosmetic works. The entire railway upgrade should be fi nished by 2015, a year ahead of the original schedule.
Bill Henry, Network Rail programme director, called the Easter works “the most ambitious part of this massive project to date” – which is quite a claim, as RTM readers who have been following our coverage of this project since 2009 will know.
Reading Borough Council is also improving the area around the station. Borough regeneration and transport leader Cllr Tony Page said: “When complete the council’s new interchanges, to the north and the south of the station, will markedly enhance the environment in and around the station, providing much-improved facilities for pedestrians, cyclists and bus and taxi passengers.
“The opening of the newly re-furbished subway underneath the station creates a route right into the town centre for people approaching the station from the northern side.
“For the tens of thousands of passengers who use Reading station every day, including a great many Reading residents of course, the new station will be a huge improvement.”
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