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Tuesday 18 Oct 2016

Reading passengers learn more about benefits of railway alliance

Region & Route:

| Wales & Western: Western

| Wales & Western

Network Rail and Great Western Railway (GWR) hosted the second in a series of alliance roadshow events at Reading station on Friday, 14 October, giving passengers the chance to find out more about the ways in which the two organisations are working together to improve rail services for passengers.

Staff from Network Rail and GWR were on hand at the event to provide information on how they are working together to deliver projects and how the alliance will benefit the hundreds of thousands of passengers who use the Great Western Railway, as well as the communities and businesses which rely on it.

The organisations formed an alliance in March to formalise the ways in which they work together and committed to joint areas for improvement for the benefit of passengers and businesses.

The alliance includes the delivery of The Greater West Programme, which will see the introduction of a fully-electrified railway to accommodate a new fleet of faster, quieter, greener electric trains with more seats and more space for passengers.

Mark Langman, Network Rail’s managing director for the Western route, said: “The purpose of our alliance is to put passengers at the heart of everything we do and we’re delighted to have had this opportunity to engage with passengers in Reading and showcase the benefits of working in close collaboration to improve rail services.

“As part of our Railway Upgrade Plan to provide a bigger, better, more reliable railway for passengers, we have extensive modernisation works taking place including future electrification and the installation of new signalling equipment and tracks. In delivering the improvements we know passengers want to see, it’s vital that Network Rail and GWR work closely together to minimise disruption as much as possible and provide passengers with the best possible service.

“The Reading alliance roadshow event has proved to be a great success and we are looking forward to planning and hosting more of these events in the Thames Valley and West Country in the near future”.

Mark Hopwood, managing director of GWR, said: “Our railway is going through the biggest investment since Brunel, and between us it is our job to make sure our passengers see the full benefit of that work as quickly and efficiently as possible.

“This alliance is enabling us to work better together to deliver these improvements, while also helping to deliver the best service that we are able to during this vital work.”

The next alliance roadshow event is scheduled to take place at Swindon station in January.

ENDS