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Reading railway station

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Image:Reading station from the rear.jpg thumb|250px|right|Reading station from the station car park at the north (rear) side of the station '''Reading''' (formerly '''Reading General''') is a railway station in the large town of Reading, Berkshire Reading in south central England. It is situated on the northern edge of the town centre, some 5 minutes' walk from the main retail and commercial areas, and close to the River Thames. Adjacent to the railway station is a bus interchange, served by most of Reading's urban and rural bus services. Reading is a major junction point on the National Rail National Rail system, and as a consequence the railway station is a major transfer point as well as serving heavy originating and terminating traffic.

Railway services
The main rail route served by the station is the Great Western Main Line, which runs west from London's Paddington station before splitting to the west of Reading station into two lines, one serving the West Country, and the other Bristol, Bath and South Wales. Services on these lines are operated by First Great Western, and all services stop at Reading. Other main lines connect Reading with Birmingham (serving both Birmingham New Street Station New Street and Birmingham International railway station International stations), northern England and Scotland to the north, and with Winchester, Hampshire Winchester, Southampton and Bournemouth to the south. Through services from north to south on these lines are operated by Virgin Trains, and all services, other than a few special summer-only services, stop in Reading. A secondary line connects Reading with Guildford and London Gatwick Airport Gatwick Airport. Services on this line, together with local stopping services to Basingstoke, Newbury, Berkshire Newbury, Great Bedwyn Bedwyn, Oxford and London Paddington, are also operated by First Great Western. Direct services to Brighton via Basingstoke are provided every few hours by South West Trains. An electric suburban line operated by South West Trains links Reading to Waterloo station London Waterloo station. An express bus service operated by First Great Western links Reading with London Heathrow Airport Heathrow Airport.

History
Image:Reading station frontage.jpg thumb|250px|right|Reading station frontage, showing the old (1860) and new station buildings Reading station opened on the March 30 30 March 1840 as the temporary western terminus of the original line of the Great Western Railway. At a stroke the time taken to travel from London to Reading was reduced to one hour and five minutes, less than a quarter of the time taken by the fastest stagecoach. The line was extended to its intended terminus at Bristol in 1841. As constructed, Reading station was a typical Isambard Kingdom Brunel Brunel designed single-sided intermediate station, with separate up and down platforms situated to the south of the through tracks and arranged so that all up trains calling at Reading had to cross the route of all down trains. New routes soon joined the London to Bristol line, with the line from Reading to Newbury, Berkshire Newbury and Hungerford opening in 1847, and the line to Basingstoke in 1848. In 1849 the South Eastern Railway reached Reading with a line from Guildford and Reigate, initially serving a temporary station at North Forbury before moving into its own separate permanent terminal station, just to the south-east of the Great Western station, in 1855. In 1856 the London and South Western Railway opened a line from its London terminus at Waterloo station Waterloo to Wokingham, with its trains continuing over the South Eastern line to that railway's terminus in Reading. At some time between 1859 and 1865, the Great Western Signal Works were constructed on lower ground to the north of the station. These works grew until by 1872 they were employing 500 men and producing most of the signalling equipment used by the Great Western Railway. The signal works continued in existence until 1984. In 1860 a new station building, in Bath Stone and incorporating a tower and clock, was constructed for the Great Western Railway. In 1898 the single sided station was replaced by a conventional design with 'up', 'down' and 'relief' platforms linked by a pedestrian subway. German aircraft tried to bomb the lines in to the station during the beginning of World War 2. In 1965 Reading Southern, the South Eastern station, was closed, and the services using it diverted into a newly constructed terminal platform in the General station. A second terminal platform serving the same line was opened in 1975 for the commencement of the service from Reading to Gatwick Airport. For some years the site of the South Eastern station was used as the station car park. However in 1989 a brand new station concourse, included a shopping arcade named for Brunel, opened on the western end of the old South Eastern station site, linked to the platforms of the main station by a new footbridge. At the same time a new multi-level station car park was built on the site of the former goods yard and signal works to the north of the station, and linked to the same footbridge. The station facilities in the 1860 station building were converted into the ''Three Guineas'' public house. On October 23, 1993, an Provisional Irish Republican Army IRA bomb exploded at a signal post near the station, some hours after 5 lb (2 kg) of Semtex was found in the toilets of the station. The resulting closure of the railway line and evacuation of the station caused travel chaos for several hours, but no-one was injured.

Future developments
To serve the traffic described above, Reading station currently has four through platforms and eight terminal platforms. The limited number of through platforms, together with flat junctions immediately to the east and west of the station, and the fact that north-south trains need to reverse direction in the station, mean that the station is a choke point with trains often having to wait outside the station for a platform to be available. Plans were produced by Railtrack for a major redevelopment of the station, with rail track on two levels. Since the demise of Railtrack and its replacement by Network Rail, the status of these plans is unclear. There is sufficient space for extra through platforms on the north side of the station, and even a disused rail underpass at the junction to the east, and there have been suggestions in the press to use these for a quicker and cheaper solution. In the meantime the problems have been somewhat reduced by the introduction of more frequent but shorter trains on Virgin Trains' routes, which are able to use the shorter terminal platforms rather than using a through platform to reverse in. Irrespective of railway developments, local authority plans show a comprehensive redevelopment of the area between the town centre and the river, including the station, by 2020.

External links
{{stn art lnk|RDG|RG11LZ}} * One traveller's [http://www.crowsnest.co.uk/stalag personal view] with a number of photographs

Sources
*{{cite book | author=Lawrence Waters | title=Rail Centres: Reading | publisher=Ian Allan Ltd | year=1990 | id=ISBN 0711019371}} *{{cite book | author=Daphne Phillips | title=The Story of Reading | publisher=Countryside Books | year=1980 | id=ISBN 0905392078}} *{{cite book | author=Stuart Hylton | title=Reading - Events, people and places over the last 100 years | publisher=Sutton Publishing Limited | year=2004 | id=ISBN 0750939060}}
{{rail start}} {{rail line one to two|previous=Paddington station London Paddington or Slough railway station Slough|next1=Didcot Parkway railway station Didcot Parkway|route1=First Great Western
Intercity services
Great Western Main Line.html">Theale railway station Theale|route2=First Great Western
Intercity services
Great Western Main Line#Reading to Taunton Paddington-Exeter via Newbury|col=010385}} {{rail line one to two|previous=Twyford railway station Twyford|next1=Tilehurst railway station Tilehurst|route1=First Great Western
Commuter services
Great Western Main Line.html">Reading West railway station Reading West|route2=First Great Western
Commuter services
Great Western Main Line#Reading to Taunton Paddington-Bedwyn|col=001385}} {{rail line|previous=Terminus|next=Reading West railway station Reading West|route=First Great Western
Commuter services
Basingstoke railway station Basingstoke branch|col=001385}} {{rail line|previous=Terminus|next=Wokingham railway station Wokingham|route=First Great Western
Commuter services
North Downs Line|col=001385}} {{rail line|previous=Terminus|next=Earley railway station Earley|route=South West Trains
Waterloo to Reading Line Waterloo-Reading|col=FF0000}} {{rail line|previous=Terminus|next=Basingstoke railway station Basingstoke|route=South West Trains
Reading-Brighton|col=FF0000}} {{rail line one to three|previous=Oxford railway station Oxford|next1=Basingstoke railway station Basingstoke|next2=Kensington (Olympia) station Olympia|next3=Guildford railway station, Surrey Guildford|next1=Basingstoke railway station Basingstoke|route1=Virgin Trains.html">Virgin Trains route3=Virgin Trains}} {{end box}} {{UK_Major_Railway_Stations}} {{UKrailwaystations}} Category:Railway stations in Berkshire Category:Reading, Berkshire Railway

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