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Tuesday 28 Sep 2010

READING RAIL TRAVELLERS REMINDED TO PLAN CHRISTMAS TRAVEL EARLY AS TRAIN TICKETS GO ON SALE

Region & Route:

Wales & Western: Western

| Wales & Western

Joint release by First Great Western and Network Rail

‘Plan your Christmas journey early’ was the advice from the rail industry to those travelling through or to Reading today, as advance purchase tickets for the festive period go on sale this week.

Train operator First Great Western and Reading businesses have joined Network Rail, which is carrying out improvement work on the railway at Reading over Christmas, in encouraging people to plan their journeys carefully during the work. Services will be affected between 27 December and 3 January inclusive.

First Great Western Projects and Planning Director, Matthew Golton said:” Although Network Rail’s work will have an impact on our services this Christmas, we’ve been working together to make sure the railway remains open for business.

“The work is vital to making improvements to the railway. We have planned our services for the festive period very carefully – including adding extra services and re-routing others – to make sure we can get our customers to where they need to go. I’d urge people to plan carefully before making their journeys.”

Tony Walker, Network Rail scheme sponsor for the Reading project said: “Our work at Reading this Christmas is the first major step on the road to making Reading’s station and rail network better. We’re working at Christmas because the railway is quieter at this time of year and we’ll be able to concentrate a lot of work into a short space of time than spread out disruption over a prolonged period.”

Tom Fuller, President of the Reading Chamber of Commerce said: “Although the work at Reading station this Christmas will affect how people get to and from the town, we’re expecting the festive period to be busier than ever. With many trains still running at Christmas, especially over the new year weekend, and plenty of alternative transport options for getting into Reading, a little advanced planning will mean shoppers and staff can get where they need to go.”

Network Rail will complete two important jobs over the Christmas period. It will install a new signalling system for the entire Reading area and place a new 750 tonne rail bridge over Caversham Road. These are vital first steps in its plan to build extra platforms and new entrances at Reading station, and a viaduct to the west of the station designed to increase capacity and cut delays. As a result of the work on Caversham Bridge, Caversham Road will be closed from 8pm on 30 December to 6am on 3 January.