Elevated solution chosen for Reading
11 September 2008
The new layout at Reading, looking northwest. The new depot is at the top of the illustration, alongside the elevated main lines to Bristol. Cow Lane cuts through the middle of the triangle. The underpass for Southampton-Oxford container trains is on the left, West Country-London aggregates trains cut across the middle of the triangle and take the right-hand underpass, Paddington-Plymouth passenger services take the chord on the right hand side. Reading station is off to the right.
An elevated solution to avoid train conflicts was unveiled by Network Rail when the company revealed its plans for the rebuilding of Reading station on 10 September. Two main line tracks will rise up on a viaduct to the west of the station to allow tracks that will carry freight trains to pass underneath, avoiding at-grade path conflicts.
Taking the main lines underneath the freight tracks had been the original plan, on the same logic that London Underground stations are built at the top of gradients in order to help trains accelerate away from a stop. But this solution had problems as it would have cut through Cow Lane, which runs through the Reading triangle, and necessitated the construction of a relief road across the Reading festival site. Also, the water table is close to the surface here, which would have complicated construction of the sub-surface lines.
'We found the time penalty of going uphill leaving the station was just nine seconds, which will be more than compensated for by the way in which the extra platforms we will be building at Reading will save time' Rupert Walker, Network Rail's Project Director for the Reading rebuilding, told Modern Railways.
Extra platforms
There will be two new island platforms on the north side of the station, on the site of the current platforms 9 and 10 and the goods loop. This will give seven through platform faces on the Great Western main line.
Running north to south, the current platform 4, the down main, will be renumbered 7 and will become the preserve of CrossCountry trains on the Oxford-Southampton route reversing at Reading. Two islands come next, the current island Nos 5 and 8, and the first of the two new islands. These will be numbered 8, 11, 12 and 13 in the new scheme, and will be used by main line services to Bristol and South Wales. The four lines serving these platforms will go up on the new viaduct to the west of the station.
'The extra platform capacity for main-line services will accommodate four extra trains per hour, or we could take the benefit in the shape of better performance' said Mr Walker. The northernmost new island, platforms 14 and 15 in the new scheme, will be used by Great Western stopping services and also the diesel service to Gatwick Airport, which will access the new platforms by a reactivated underpass to the east of the station. Heathrow will also be reached from this side of the station: the stop of the current Rail-Air bus link to Heathrow is slated to switch to the north side of the railway. In the future the proposed Airtrack rail services from Heathrow could come into the northern island, as could Crossrail services.
While the new island platforms will greatly enhance capacity for main line services, more space is also needed for the increasingly-popular South West Trains service coming in from the Staines direction. Diverting the Gatwick services to the new northern island will help. The current platforms 4A and 4B will be lengthened to 12 cars and the single lead approach will be doubled. A third SWT platform is also to be built to the south of the current two.
Few changes are envisaged to the current concourse, which dates from 1989 (a new gateline to serve the SWT platforms is a possibility), but it will be complemented by a new northern entrance and booking hall. Reading Borough Council is making a number of changes to the area around the station, including relocating some bus stands to the north side of the station. An improved access across the tracks is required without any need to go through the barriers, and the subway is likely to be refurbished for this. This will be on the 'unpaid' side, with access from the platforms in emergency only. Step-free access to the platforms will be provided from a bridge over the tracks.
Copyright © 2008 Modern Railways Magazine