Reading station redevelopment

[streetquark]

Crossrail doesn't need its own exclusive use tracks west of the Heathrow spur as the capacity is limited due to the core east of the spur sharing ex-Heathrow with ex-Maidenhead (Reading).

Maybe the extra capacity could be Reading-Heathrow if a west-facing spur were put in?

[cle]

The Heathrow express trains run down the fast lines, if that's what you're referring to?

I wasn't saying Crossrail needed them exclusively, but more that it would just happen that way now Twyford is sorted. I'd imagine trains beyond Reading would run fast to Reading, or the local ones would start there - like Newbury slows now do.

[streetquark]

Crossrail services are to be split at the spur is all I meant, so there will be fewer west of there along the GWML for that reason. Connect services will be incorporated. It could be that HEX trains are incorporated too and will use fast tracks along with some ex-Maidenhead/Reading Crossrail trains. If we're only talking about 4 tph peaks along a new west-facing curve into the GWML mainline it's probably not worth it.

[cle]

So using the HEx paths to enable Reading via LHR fast trains?

I think that if reversing at T5, it'd take 21 mins there, 2 dwell, 3 to rejoin the GWML and 15 to Reading - so approximately 40 mins to Reading. Better off on a semi-fast train.

[reading general]

Originally Posted by cle

basically adding Reading to the tube map and making it the terminus for many services.

if this happens i'm off! as much as i like the place, i don't want to be part of london!

the more people encouraged to commute from towns futher out, the less jobs there are in the towns and house prices rise.
reading has its own business and economy too. its not maidenhead or guildford. there is thinking from some parties that everybody in the southeast should be working in london!

[streetquark]

But surely Crossrail will encourage people to commute to Reading?

[reading general]

valid point.
but i can't see anybody beyond london paddington doing that. the present service takes care of everybody in between.

[TedStriker]

Originally Posted by reading general

if this happens i'm off! as much as i like the place, i don't want to be part of london!

the more people encouraged to commute from towns futher out, the less jobs there are in the towns and house prices rise.
reading has its own business and economy too. its not maidenhead or guildford. there is thinking from some parties that everybody in the southeast should be working in london!

Don't worry, Reading is far enough out from London, and is postioned well enough along the M4 corridor to maintain the status it has now as a centre of employment, even if Crossrail trains do reach it.

Remember that it has for a long time been perfectly feasible to commute from Reading to London, using the IC125s.

If Crossrail trains do reach Reading, I don't think they'll be be that full of people coming from/going to London. They will in large part be carrying people between Reading and the stations that lie along the GWML, just as the current outer suburban trains do now.

As for house prices, they may rise, it's true, but not so much because of Crossrail. I think the publicity surrounding the GWML electrification and re-modelling of Reading station will in itself throw the spotlight on the town.

So house prices may rise simply because more people may wish to move to Reading just to be there, not because they are seekign an easy commute to London. That's the price of having a town which is seen to be more and more appealing.

[reading general]

fair enough.
i just don't want our council conned out of money to pay for a new tube line that not many people here are going to use.
bringing it to reading means things stay the same as they are. i don't see how it can be a benefit when you can change at london paddington. i find getting to the other side of london a problem, by road or rail. the line would be far more beneficial if inter city type trains could use it. a train starting at bristol along the mainline with the usual stops one or two in london and then onto ipswich? norwich? not 6 stops in central london! anyhow i wonder if a lot of trains going west will start at london paddington anyway?
i'm happy for it to come if we get a western heathrow link. thats the only way i'll agree with it.

[TedStriker]

Good point. A western Heathrow link would be helpful, unless the current Arup plans are put in place for the Heathrow hub station on the GWML, in which case there's no need for a western Heathrow link.

By the way, at the risk of sounding pedantic, Crossrail is not part of the tube network. It is a mainline system that just happens to bore it's way through London, just like the Thameslink operation.

Again, like Thameslink, the fact Crossrail may stretch out as far a distance as Reading is really not that a big deal.

It will look good on a map, it will please some people in Reading and in some of the towns between Reading and London, and it will mean some of the trains which currently terminate in Paddington will carry on running to Essex/Kent.

But otherwise, it will be the electric replacements of the IC125s which will really boost the commuter prestige of Reading. The sparks effect really does have an impact, and I think this will especially be so for the famous Brunel-designed racetrack.

In any case, I think Reading's employment base is pretty stable. While the decision of Newbury-based Vodafone to open a corporate HQ in London got some media attention, I very much doubt that Reading's resident technology companies will uproot to London just because the GWML has a makeover.

Is there a particular aspect of Reading's economy that worries you?

[reading general]

no. its just built up in the last few years to be better than most provincial towns and i don't want it to move backwards with business moving out and luxury flats replacing them.
still the station upgrade and sackville's stationhill development will help keep it going. keep business in the town centre rather than the business parks(boo).
i once heard a rumour eurostar were looking to buy the cattlemarket site near the station! now thats something i do want
i'll compromise. crossrail can come if we can have eurostar too

[TedStriker]

Erm, you'll not see a Eurostar train in Reading station for a long, long time.

But you raise an interesting point. Some may wonder if HS1 will be served directly by trains from the GWML once the GWML has the wires up.

I'd say no - the journey times would not be good enough to attract the people who fly from the regional airport(s) that the trains would compete with, which I would imagine would be Bristol.

With the Arup hub at Heathrow, GWML trains would interfacwe with HS1 anyway, which in turn would have some trains running to/from the Channel Tunnel directly.

But why am I typing all this, as I think you were joking anyway...

[reading general]

yep.
did hear the rumour though from several sources when north pole opened up on the mainline in london.
if only they electrified the gwml then. oh what could have been.
after all the gwml is the original high speed line.

[Harry]

I don't think Reading has anything to fear from getting better transport links. Quite the opposite. The town's success is largely down to its existing transport links and its wealthy hinterland. Reading is already a very well connected town in terms of its rail links. The roads (caused largely, I know, by the in fighting with Wokingham and South Oxfordshire boroughs) are something of a headache...but that's another story. Reading's future is bright, I'm quite sure of that.

[streetquark]

Yes but what about Reading between the lines?

Originally Posted by reading general

valid point.
but i can't see anybody beyond london paddington doing that. the present service takes care of everybody in between.

So really this just leaves the affect Crossrail will have on users between Reading and Paddington. Surely all those Crossrail trains replacing Reading semi-fasts will be of benefit to them too.

[reading general]

i would like to know how many trains leaving maidenhead will stop at taplow, burnham,etc. wether the present frequency will be followed or not. serving one station more often could see journey times from others increased. ok there is the benefit of not changing trains at london paddington but people may stiil have to change futher down the line anyway.

[Luke80]

Reading station at the moment is a joke. All westbound trains use 1 platform which means it's like heathrow - you can see them queueing to get into the station! The freight traffic has to be changed through more tracks really so that Bristol/Cardiff/Oxford services can be on a separate platform to Paignton/Plymouth/Penzance. That might be a start! Likewise 2 platforms for Paddington bound trains.

[TedStriker]

Originally Posted by Luke80

Reading station at the moment is a joke. All westbound trains use 1 platform which means it's like heathrow - you can see them queueing to get into the station! The freight traffic has to be changed through more tracks really so that Bristol/Cardiff/Oxford services can be on a separate platform to Paignton/Plymouth/Penzance. That might be a start! Likewise 2 platforms for Paddington bound trains.

It's amazing it's been left as it is for so long.

When the redevelopment is complete, people will very quickly get used to it, because it will be as the station ought to have been for a very long time.

I'm trying to think of other locations in Britain that are as important in railway-junction terms, that are as messy as Reading, and I can't.

Does anyone know if there are plans to re-jig the station at Swindon as well?

With the Reading plans, 125mph trains will be able to zip through non-stop, and I thought Network Rail may also want to the same kind of thing to be possible at Swindon.

[gothicform]

york is another example of a messy junction. in fact things in york are so bad that all trains on the east coast mainline have to slow down to 10mph on one stretch through it!

[TedStriker]

Originally Posted by gothicform

york is another example of a messy junction. in fact things in york are so bad that all trains on the east coast mainline have to slow down to 10mph on one stretch through it!

Perhaps there's scope for a thread that looks at Britain's main lines.

With regards to the ECML, don't all inter city services stop at York anyway? If not, then yes, something there ought to be done.

Does anything need to be done with Newcastle, or again, do all inter city trains stop there anyway?

I know that at the South end of the ECML, the flat crossing at Newark needs a remedy, and the line South of Peterborough could probably do with having four tracks again.

Meanwhile on the WCML, it's great what has been done in recent years, especially I think, 125mph trains through Rugby.

It needs some further work though, such as the grade-separation of Colwich Junction.

I also suspect that both Preston and Carlisle need some attention paid to them, but I don't know how valuable it would be for Pendolinos to pass through these towns at speed.

As for the GWML, apart from Reading, I'm thinking that Swindon may benefit from having the ability to have 125mph trains pass.

But otherwise, I suspect there's probably no major value in tweaking the line in Wales, or in the West Country.

Or may be there is....

As for Reading, when does it all begin?