Reading West railway station serves
West Reading, Berkshire
West Reading is a locality or informal subdivision of the town of Reading, Berkshire, Reading in the England, English county of Berkshire, with its own Reading West railway station, railway station which opened in 1906, by which time its main ro ...
, about west from the town's main retail and commercial areas. The station is served by local services operated by
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...
. It is down the line the zero point at .
History
![Bere Alston, Reading & Wokingham RJD 64](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Bere_Alston%2C_Reading_%26_Wokingham_RJD_64.jpg)
The line through Reading West station opened on 21 December 1847, as part of the
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...
backed
Berks and Hants Railway
The Berks and Hants Railway comprised two railway lines built simultaneously by the Great Western Railway (GWR) south and west from in an attempt to keep the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) out of the area that it considered to be its ...
's route from to . On 1 November 1848, Berks and Hants Railway's second route to opened. The two lines merged at Southcote Junction, just south of the eventual station site, running together through that site to Reading station.
Reading West station itself did not open until 1 July 1906, by which time the Berks and Hants Railway had been subsumed into the Great Western Railway. The station was originally intended to serve trains between the north of England and the south coast which could thus avoid a reversal at Reading.
[
In 2021, work began on a new station building on Oxford Road, as well as a new entrance from Tilehurst Road, and a new bus interchange.
]
Accidents and incidents
On 28 December 1965, the 08:30 passenger service from Reading General to derailed near the station. The 10-coach train was travelling at when it struck a broken rail, derailing at the fifth carriage (with the wheels of the following coaches also derailing). The train stayed upright, and the application of the locomotive's vacuum brake
The vacuum brake is a braking system employed on trains and introduced in the mid-1860s. A variant, the automatic vacuum brake system, became almost universal in British train equipment and in countries influenced by British practice. Vacuum bra ...
s saw the train stop in approximately . An investigation found that the rail had suffered a transverse fracture at the site of wheelburns. None of the passengers sustained serious injury.
Location
To the north of the station the line crosses a railway bridge over the Oxford Road, followed by Oxford Road Junction, which is the southern apex of a triangle of tracks. The tracks to the west curve round to join the Great Western Main Line
The Great Western Main Line (GWML) is a main line railway in England that runs westwards from London Paddington to . It connects to other main lines such as those from Reading to Penzance and Swindon to Swansea. Opened in 1841, it was the or ...
towards Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
at Reading West Junction, and are largely used by freight train
Rail freight transport is the use of railroads and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers.
A freight train, cargo train, or goods train is a group of freight cars (US) or goods wagons (International Union of Railways) haul ...
s between Southampton Docks
The Port of Southampton is a passenger and cargo port in the central part of the south coast of England. The modern era in the history of the Port of Southampton began when the first dock was inaugurated in 1843. The port has been owned and op ...
and points to the north. The tracks to the east lead to Reading station and are mostly used by passenger services.
To the south of the station the line enters a cutting, crossed by high level bridges carrying the Tilehurst Road and, further to the south, the Bath Road
The A4 is a major road in England from Central London to Avonmouth via Heathrow Airport, Reading, Berkshire, Reading, Bath, Somerset, Bath and Bristol. It is historically known as the Bath Road with newer sections including the Great West Road ...
. Beyond the cutting is Southcote Junction, where the line to diverges from that to Newbury. Until 1983 there was a third line at the junction, the Coley branch line
The Coley branch line ( ELR:COY), also known as the Coley goods branch, was a single-track branch railway running from the Reading to Basingstoke line at Coley Branch Junction to Reading Central goods depot.
History
The railway was built by ...
, which diverted just to the north at Coley Branch Junction and served Reading Central goods station. In 2015, Network Rail’s Western Route Study suggested the provision of a grade separated junction at Southcote, with a third track to be provided between there and the Oxford Road Junction at Reading West.
There is separate pedestrian access to the northern end of both platforms from Oxford Road, together with access to the southern end of the down platform from Tilehurst Road.
Services
The station is served by local services operated by Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...
between Reading and Basingstoke or Newbury. During weekday daytime the station is served by two trains an hour on the Basingstoke route, plus one on the Newbury route. Trains are less frequent on Sundays and in the evenings. Trains take some 3 minutes to reach Reading, 20 minutes to reach Basingstoke, 25 minutes to reach Newbury and just over 30 minutes to reach London.
South West Trains
Stagecoach South Western Trains Limited, trading as South West Trains (SWT), was an English train operating company owned by Stagecoach Group, Stagecoach, which operated the South Western franchise between February 1996 and August 2017.
SWT op ...
previously ran services from Reading to Basingstoke, which occasionally ran to Brighton
Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...
.
References
External links
{{coord, 51.455142, -0.990516, type:railwaystation_region:GB, display=title
Railway stations in Berkshire
DfT Category E stations
Buildings and structures in Reading, Berkshire
Transport in Reading, Berkshire
Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1906
Former Great Western Railway stations
Railway stations served by Great Western Railway