Changing Times at Reading Station

The massive Reading Station and track upgrade is progressing well with passengers quickly getting used to the new platform and consequential platform renumbering scheme.

New Southern Platform Opens for Business at Reading

When passengers started flooding back through Reading station in early January, they were faced with a new platform and many of the existing platforms being renumbered.

In summary, this is the revised numbering scheme:

Platforms 1, 2 & 3 remain unchanged.

New platform 4, a 12 car long 3rd rail electrified line (opened at 05:15 on 31st December).

Platform 4B becomes platform 5 and remains closed until March 2012 when extension work is completed.

Platform 4A becomes platform 6 and will close in March 2012 for extension work to become a 12 car length.

Platform 4 becomes platform 7.

Platform 5 becomes platform 8.

Platform 6 becomes platform 16 and will close permanently later in the project hence being allocated a number not required in the future.

Platform 7 closes and is taken out of use and track removed.

Platform 8 becomes platform 9.

Platform 9 becomes platform 10.

Platform 10 becomes platform 11 and will eventually become a through platform.

Station signage was changed to reflect the changes and extra staff on duty to direct passengers.

New Platform 4

The new platform 4 is used by South West Trains electric services to Waterloo and is the highly visible part of the improvement so far.

Old Canopy Gets Replaced by a Temporary Arrangement on the Former Platforms 4A&B

Christmas Day saw a 200 ton mobile crane set up which duly removed the canopies on the old platform 4 adjacent to the Grade 2 listed Brunel main station building. A temporary 54 metre long canopy was installed on January 14th.

Old Platform 9 – the New Platform 10

New track was laid in December creating the new line for the new platform 10 and over Christmas about 60 metres of track was taken up from the east and west end of the existing platform. The trackbed was skimmed and track relaid to the new platform alignment. The platform extensions were built in sections and have their hoarding attached to the rear.

Platform 7 Disappears

Christmas day also saw the track removed from the now redundant platform 7 and the area is now being used as a worksite.

Cow Lane Bridge

A new bridge at Cow Lane, west of Reading station, offers over 5m clearance across the width of the structure. The old one was not so generous and meant lorries had o pass under the arch in the middle of the road or hit the bridge, causing delays to train services. The road was closed until January 23rd after a five week closure. The bridge was put in place using a Self Propelled Modular Transporter unit.

This brief update does not really do justice to the huge amount of work carried out over Christmas and in the following month. Thanks to First Great Western and Network Rail for the update on the project.

External Links

• Network Rail
• First Great Western