News Reading’s £850m rebuild gets under way


present station would not cope. It has 12 platforms but eight are bays, with only four through-platforms. That means every long-distance train heading west has to stop at the congested Platform 4. Buildings on the north side of


the station will be demolished early next year, ready for two new island platforms to be built. The following year they will be connected to the Waterloo route on the south side of the station by re-opening an old underpass east of the station. At present, South West Trains


A bridge over Caversham Road is demolished


by Paula Bedminster


Work is under way on the £850m redevelopment of Reading station. Tracks on the north side of the station have been lifted and preparations have begun for replacing three bridges over Caversham Road, immediately west of the station platforms, with a larger single span. It will eventually accommodate tracks leading to four new platforms. During September, work to the


bridge parapets took place over two weekends. The new 1,000-tonne bridge


will be assembled on scaffolding at a former Royal Mail site beside the station, and will be wheeled into


place during a 10-day Christmas blockade. It will be lifted into place in a single piece. Caversham Road is the main


north-south artery through Reading, so closing it will be disruptive. The fire station will also have to move temporarily into the Royal Mail yard, to avoid being cut off from part of the town. At the same time, signalling


will be transferred from the box alongside the station, which was built in 1965, to a new regional centre at Didcot, which will control most of the Thames Valley. Seven hundred trains use the


station each day, carrying 14 million passengers a year, but that number is expected to double by 2030 and the


ORR finds Network Rail in breach of licence over timetable problems


n


Network Rail has been found to be in breach of its licence


by the Office of the Rail Regulation for faults with its new timetable planning system. The integrated train planning


system (ITPS) was introduced for the May 2010 timetable. But the new system delayed the publication of the national rail timetable and caused some Tocs to have problems taking reservations and updating their customer information systems. The ORR found that Network


Rail had breached Condition 1 of its licence ‘for failing to run an effective and efficient system for managing the timetable change


process on the network’. Jo deBank, spokesperson for


London TravelWatch, said: ‘We heard from people who had planned journeys in advance, only to turn up at railway stations to find trains weren’t running, even though the customer information websites had said they were.’ ORR chief executive Bill Emery


said he supported the decision to replace old and inefficient timetabling systems, but that the changeover had been ‘most unsatisfactory’. He added that the ORR was considering whether to impose a financial penalty.


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services terminate at two bay platforms. Should the Airtrack scheme to link Heathrow via Staines be built, this will allow direct services from the Great Western Main Line, as well as enabling a diversionary route for through First Great Western services. The entire project will take five


years to complete. It includes a new flyover to separate express trains from the intermodal freight services that cross the GWML when heading north from Southampton docks.


The original station building,


which is now a pub, will remain. So will the present station concourse – but a new access to the station will be built alongside, with an additional new entrance on the north side of the station. With a total bill of £850m,


Reading is one of Network Rail’s biggest projects outside London. There remain some uncertainties over the project, however. Reading Borough Council says it will no longer have the funds to complete a remodelling of road access around the station – the funds were cut by the government.


The October spending review


will establish whether the Great Western is to be electrified: a new train depot is part of the Reading plan, and IEP trains as well as local services would be maintained there. There is also provision for Crossrail to be extended from Maidenhead. But Network Rail says that


the overwhelming majority of the scheme is fully committed.


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OCTOBER 2010 PAGE 7


Network Rail


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