New station at Ruscombe??!! "Twyford Gardens"

[whole diary]

[BBM]

I've just had a 4-page brochure from Berkeley Homes through my letter box with information on the new development which I was about to scan and attach here but on the back page of it there's a link to a website: https://twyfordgardens.co.uk/

It contains more info and pictures than the brochure and of particular interest is a plan showing the proposed location of the new station: https://twyfordgardens.co.uk/the-vision/

Artist's impression: https://twyfordgardens.co.uk/improving-local-infrastructure/

[stuving]

Berkeley do seem to have revised their ideas since an earlier map escaped in 2018. It looks a little smaller, and the roads layout is quite different. And the new station has moved closer to Twyford!

From what they say, the old position would overlap with Ruscombe Junction, hence the change.  The gap is down to less than 1500 m.

[eightonedee]

Well, I suppose that now Twyford will soon be "on the Underground", such gaps no longer look daft.........

[Sixty3Closure]

Sticking to the station element I'm not convinced. The demand for trains is for the 'fast' services to London and this proposal so far as I can tell would be about Crossrail stopping trains which  seem to have a reasonable amount of spare capacity. Building several thousand houses is going to create that demand rather than relieve it.

The car park argument seems reasonable although I'd imagine most people driving to the station would be travelling into London and go to Twyford for the fast trains. If you work in Reading is driving to Twyford gardens going to save you time and money?

The proposal does look very nice but I can't help but feel its going to overwhelm Twyford. There's been several new estates in the past decade or two around Twyford and the main problem has been the amount of 4 and 5 bed detached houses rather than higher density options. The brochure is quite vague on what they want to build and a comment only that they 'could' include social housing.

I'm moving from Twyford so I've avoided commenting on the proposal but if I was staying I would have reservations of which the train station is probably the least of them.

[grahame]

Perhaps the future will bring Twyford, Twyford Gardens, South Twyford, West Twyford, Twyford Lido and Twyford Manor.  Or perhaps with reduced commuting - people in the office just 2 to 4 days a week - not so much 'width' of service will be needed.