Tilehurst station - facilities, incidents and improvements (merged posts)

[whole diary]

[eightonedee]

To warn everyone due to pass Tilehurst- all trains have been halted due to a lineside fire between Tilehurst and Reading.

I am stuck on a train (7-45 ex Goring) at Tilehurst and there's an IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - the now official name for the replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) alongside us at platform 2

[Adelante_CCT]

Smoke is horrific, drifting towards Caversham

[eightonedee]

We have now been cleared to proceed. Just passed spectacular fire and smoke at Stadium Way

[eightonedee]

...and arrived at Reading still in time for my onward train to Guildford.

A number of delays showing for trains on the line and some last platform changes at Reading

[bobm]

Updated reports being filed here - https://www.readingchronicle.co.uk/news/18293729.reading-fire-live-updates-black-smoke-seen-tilehurst/

[stuving]

Looking at the pictures, that appears to be the back of that row of sheds which is ITP - "Europe's largest dealer of empty cartridges". That sounds like would indeed burn enthusiastically and blackly.

[Marlburian]

On my extended walk this morning to buy a newspaper, I popped into Tilehurst Station for the sake of nostalgia.  There's a new refreshment van there, slightly smaller (and in better nick) than the pre-Covid one. A sign says that it's open from 8 to 12 on weekdays, which struck me as slightly curious times as most commuters bound for London would have caught their trains by then, and perhaps it's that sort of customer who's more in need of a caffeine fix than those heading only for Reading.

Back in Normal Times, there didn't seem to be much trade for the previous van after about 0915.

Not that I have any idea of how many people are using the train services nowadays.

Sad to see even more rubbish than usual around and behind the memorial bench to Jack Stockton, with beer cans and crisp packaging being prominent. (I'm not suggesting any connection to the refreshment van.)

[nickswift99]

In a related note - the coffee shop at Goring & Streatley now appears to be permanently closed (as announced in local media). Does anyone know if the same fate has met Pangbourne's facility?

[IndustryInsider]

In a related note - the coffee shop at Goring & Streatley now appears to be permanently closed (as announced in local media). Does anyone know if the same fate has met Pangbourne's facility?

I'm not sure, but it was also very heavily reliant on commuter custom, which, as we know, has slowed to a trickle since mid-March.

[Marlburian]

We've come some way from Tilehurst to Lewknor in this thread, but so did I today. I parked my car in Lewknor village and walled past the "informal" parking area mentioned above. Just six cars. On the corners of Hill Road plasticy bollards had been placed since my last visit, presumably to deter parking on them. A couple had been knocked askew. Hours later, I returned via Chinnor and was puzzled to see half-a-dozen security guards spread out along the Ridgeway. I enquired, to be told they were there to deter idiot swimmers in the Taylor Wimpey lake formed out of the old quarry workings. Googling revealed there were major problems there earlier in the summer.

[Marlburian]

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) seeks ?6.5 million government funding to build decked car park

And Network Rail is investing ?4 million into constructing lifts at the station - it's hoped this work will start in Spring 2022.

It would be interesting to know the thinking about the need for another 99 car-park spaces, given speculation about how many passengers will return to the trains.

[Marlburian]

I walked past Tilehurst Station today and noticed half-a-dozen vehicles on the forecourt and a number of people standing around. I guessed that they were patronising the refreshment van. For some months there's been a smaller one in better condition than the first van that was parked there. Perhaps coffee-lovers have established a morning ritual?

I smiled to myself as I recall one of my earliest posts in the Coffee Shop, about double-yellow lines being painted around the forecourt  leaving only one temporary parking bay.This had led me to speculate about how conscientious I should be when it came to parking my car and hanging around waiting for friends to arrive.

And 13 months ago I was muttering about the new timetable that would cause me to have to hang around at Reading Station when heading eastward.

Then Covid came along ...

[Marlburian]

I walked past Tilehurst Station today and noticed half-a-dozen vehicles on the forecourt and a number of people standing around.

Just six cars parked at Tilehurst Station at 0730 this morning, plus a very small trickle of passengers arriving on foot. I was able to walk across the Oxford Road twice without pausing, impossible in the rush hours of the old days.

(That having been said, when turning right out of Waitrose on Wednesday morning at 0800 my wait for a gap in the traffic was "long" by pre-COVID standards.)

[Marlburian]

A dozen cars parked at 1600 this afternoon, as I returned from Reading on a two-car DMU^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit) for Oxford that had all its windows closed - perhaps they could have been opened to provide the ventilation we are promised on trains?

A very high proportion of people at Tilehurst and Reading stations and on the two trains that I took were wearing masks and a small number were doing so on Reading's streets.

[Marlburian]

Today at 0955 there were 21 cars parked at Reading Station. And, to be really nerdish, just three copies remaining of Metro, which informed me that train travel had boosted W H Smith's profits, with sales for the six months up to August 31 being 65% of the same period in 2019 and that demand for rail travel is two-thirds of what it was at the same time in that year.

(Over that period Metro seems to have increased its superficial waffle content.)