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Monday 18 Feb 2013

Major changes on the way at Reading station

Region & Route:

| Wales & Western: Western

| Wales & Western

Passengers in Reading will have a chance to see the massive improvements due to be completed in early April at a public exhibition in the station on the 19^th and 20^th February.

Staff from Network Rail, First Great Western and Reading Borough Council, along with contractors who are delivering the works, will be on hand from 7.30am until 6.30pm, to answer questions about the £895m investment in the area which will see the upgrade of the station and work to unblock the bottleneck on the railway.

To help deliver the improvement works there are major changes planned at the station which will affect passengers from 1^st March, with the closure of the section of the passenger bridge which links the station to the multi-storey car park and the opening of a newly refurbished subway.

Network Rail’s deputy programme director, Jim Weeden, said: “From 1^st March, the bridge linking the multi-storey carpark to the station will close for good. For four weeks, people will be able to use a temporary walking route via the new subway. Those using the new temporary walking route will need to allow up to an additional 15 minutes to get to their trains.

“We have to do this because the current bridge sits in the way of new platforms which have to be finished by April, so it has to be removed. We realise this will be an inconvenience to passengers and are sorry for this; if there was another way of completing the new platforms we would do it.”

Passengers who use the car park link bridge will need to go to the ground floor of the car park, where there will be a marshalled walking route leading to the newly refurbished subway. This will take them on to what was Station Hill, adjacent to the Brunel Arcade and the main entrance to the station.

When the new northern entrance has opened, the subway will be the only means for pedestrians to get from one side of the railway to the other. The subway, which will be maintained by Reading Borough Council, has new lighting and a digital CCTV system linked to station staff, Thames Valley Police and the British Transport Police.

Passengers and the public are also set to benefit from the work Reading Borough Council is doing to improve the areas outside the station’s two new entrances.

Tony Page, Reading Borough Council’s Lead Councillor for Regeneration, Transport and Planning, said: “The re-opening of the newly refurbished subway underneath the station will provide an important route right into the town centre for people approaching the station from the northern side. When complete in July, facilities at the new northern interchange will include new bus stops, taxi ranks, spaces for around 350 bicycles, as well as a new public square and new paving. Work is fast taking shape and I am sure residents and passengers using the station will appreciate these major improvements.”

There will be 10 days of planned service disruption on the railway over the Easter period (from 28^th March to 7^th April) to allow essential work to be done to open the spectacular new passenger bridge, new platforms and entrances. The first phase of the station will open in early April 2013 – with the whole project remaining on course to be finished in 2015, one year ahead of schedule.

First Great Western Managing Director, Mark Hopwood, said: “Network Rail has been able to complete the vast majority of the improvement work around Reading with little impact on our services, however the work this Easter simply can’t be completed without impacting customers’ journeys.

“While some journeys are likely to take longer than normal, our focus is making sure people can still get to where they want to go over the period. We will be running special services on diversionary routes, and will be providing alternative transport to minimise inconvenience as much as possible.”

Passengers will be able to check their journeys for the Easter period online at firstgreatwestern.co.uk, where they can also buy advance tickets.

The station upgrades are just one part of the Reading improvement scheme, which also includes the construction of a new train care depot, a viaduct to provide more room for trains, new signalling to improve reliability and the introduction of over-head electrical lines to allow new state-of-the-art electric trains to run.

Network Rail started work to build the new viaduct in January 2013.