READING PASSENGERS COME FACE TO FACE WITH BRUNEL

Friday 28 Jul 2006

READING PASSENGERS COME FACE TO FACE WITH BRUNEL

Region & Route:: | Wales & Western: Western; | Wales & Western; | Southern

Thousands of passengers at Reading railway station will be coming face to face with the achievements of one of the greatest engineers in history over the next two weeks. The ‘Discover the Legacy’ exhibition, dedicated to Isambard Kingdom Brunel to mark the 200th anniversary of his birth, will be on display for all visitors to Reading Station. Andy Coston, Network Rail’s General Manager for the Thames Valley area, said: “All of our staff on the Western route have the unique honour of safeguarding much of Brunel’s legacy – his work on this part of the railway is as breathtaking today as it was more than 100 years ago." “Our engineers still use Brunel’s original drawings in their day-to-day jobs, so it is only fitting that we are involved in these celebrations.” The stands include rarely-seen drawings and plans by Brunel from Network Rail’s own archive, commissioned photographs and information about the great man and ‘pearls’ of the Great Western route. Following its launch at Paddington Station, this unique exhibition will be at Reading Station from Monday 31 July – Friday 11 August and will then travel to Bristol Temple Meads Station and Plymouth Station, finishing at Swindon Steam Museum.

Notes to editors

The Exhibition will be at the following locations: Reading Station: 31 July – 11 August Bristol Temple Meads Station: 12 – 25 August Plymouth Station: 26 August – 8 September Swindon Steam Museum: 9 – 23 September For filming permission, please contact First Great Western press office on 01793 499499.

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We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.

Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.

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