Reading Station improvements

[whole diary]

[Southern Stag]

Presumably up Westbury-London fast trains aren't actually going to use platform 8 much for now. Doing so would require them to go up the down main past the signal gantry, preventing any fast down services accessing platforms 7, 8 or 9.  For now I'd imagine where possible they'll cross to the up main at the west end of the station, using platform 10. That would leave platform 8 pretty much free for XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)), down London-Westbury fast services can use 7 and down London-Didcot fast services can use 9.

[Oxman]

Not forgetting the Westbury - London stone trains and empty returns, of course. Routing options for these are much more restricted - they will have to use the main lines between Westbury Line Junction and Kennet Bridge. A wise old signaller in Reading panel once told me that they would always try to give the heavily loaded up trains a clear run through the area, even if it meant delaying Class 1s, because the time penalty for stopping and restarting was so huge - it would inevitably cause even greater delays.

[bobm]

Wasn't it also a case that the length of them meant if they were stopped at one particular signal they brought the whole station area to a stand.

[old original]

for info.. apparently the next big engineering works which will severely affect train services at Reading are next Easter -  Maunday Thursday to the following Tuesday.

[Gordon the Blue Engine]

II, thank you for posting these plans. Very interesting and a lot to absorb.

The Goods lines between Tilehurst East Junction and Reading West Junction are shown as being taken out as from Easter 2013, which is not good for us who use Oxford stoppers. Once an up Freightliner etc leaves Didcot East, it's got nowhere to be looped until after Reading West Junction, so if it has to wait for a path across the ML's at Reading West Junction it'll be sitting on the URL with my Turbo behind it.

Is Reading West Curve long enough to hold the longest Freights clear of Reading West J and Oxford Road J?  If not, regulation gets even more challenging.

[coachflyer]

Just noticed that the Kennet Bridge loop will be made reversible.

Could be where xc services with a layover are sent to free up space in the station??

[paul7575]

for info.. apparently the next big engineering works which will severely affect train services at Reading are next Easter -  Maunday Thursday to the following Tuesday.

Was posted earlier, (in #641) on page 43 of this thread:

http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=6405.630

Paul

[paul7575]

... but until then it looks like XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise))'s are most likely to use platform 8 - which in itself will block the up Westbury line, so that's another (temporary) restriction.

The 2013 Engineering Access Statement (formerly RotR) shows a couple of months late next year (Sept to November) with P7 closed (that'll be for building it out towards P8 as there'll be only the two tracks there eventually); this seems to further reduce the platforming options for XC through services to/from the south coast. I suppose though that having P9 as the only down main available towards both Didcot and Newbury (ie while P8 is blocked by a reversing 'through' XC service) is effectively no worse than the current situation where P7 is effectively the only down main platform?

AFAICS^▸ (As Far As I Can See) in the current timetable there are Southampton to Newcastle departures and Manchester to Bournemouth arrivals moving in the station area simultaneously - maybe their timetables will need tweaking a bit to separate them? 

The P7 closure is immediately followed by P8 being reduced to a 5 car length temporarily, I'd assume this is while the P8 platform edging is upgraded?

Paul   

[IndustryInsider]

The 2013 Engineering Access Statement (formerly RotR) shows a couple of months late next year (Sept to November) with P7 closed (that'll be for building it out towards P8 as there'll be only the two tracks there eventually); this seems to further reduce the platforming options for XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) through services to/from the south coast. I suppose though that having P9 as the only down main available towards both Didcot and Newbury (ie while P8 is blocked by a reversing 'through' XC service) is effectively no worse than the current situation where P7 is effectively the only down main platform?

Could the temporary closure of P7 coincide with the re-opening of P11?  That could then be used for XC services (as well as other trains as the situation demands), and would give four platforms to cope with HSS^▸ (High Speed Services)/B&H^▸ (Berks and Hants - railway line from Reading to Taunton via Westbury) and reversing XC services.

[paul7575]

The 2013 Engineering Access Statement (formerly RotR) shows a couple of months late next year (Sept to November) with P7 closed (that'll be for building it out towards P8 as there'll be only the two tracks there eventually); this seems to further reduce the platforming options for XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) through services to/from the south coast. I suppose though that having P9 as the only down main available towards both Didcot and Newbury (ie while P8 is blocked by a reversing 'through' XC service) is effectively no worse than the current situation where P7 is effectively the only down main platform?

Could the temporary closure of P7 coincide with the re-opening of P11?  That could then be used for XC services (as well as other trains as the situation demands), and would give four platforms to cope with HSS^▸ (High Speed Services)/B&H^▸ (Berks and Hants - railway line from Reading to Taunton via Westbury) and reversing XC services.

Ah yes, the 2013 EAS does have P11 back into use by the end of August (26th) so that would provide a further solution but I've just noticed that P10 closes immediately after P11 re-opens, so that won't help after all... 

Paul

[IndustryInsider]

Darn!  Don't suppose you could provide a link to the 2013 EAS?  I can only find the 2012 one the NR^» (Network Rail - home page) website.

[paul7575]

Darn!  Don't suppose you could provide a link to the 2013 EAS?  I can only find the 2012 one the NR^» (Network Rail - home page) website.

http://www.networkrail.co.uk/browse%20documents/Rules%20Of%20The%20Route/EASyearYY/70wrYY.pdf

[mjones]

Anyone know any more about what is happening with Platform 6? It continues to languish largely unused, except for a few peak services, but I've not seen any work taking place on or near it for some time.

[BerkshireBugsy]

Anyone know any more about what is happening with Platform 6? It continues to languish largely unused, except for a few peak services, but I've not seen any work taking place on or near it for some time.

Certainly my experience regarding P6 (as a daily user) is it is rarely used not because it is undergoing work but because (in my mind) if P4 is in use then the logical place to park a second diagram is P5 and vice verca. I am guessing it is "simpler" in terms of routing to place an incoming service on p5 if p4 is busy but I don't have enough knowledge to understand if the incoming train routing to these platforms (at a local level) is manual or automatic.

[mjones]

Maybe, though from previous discussions on this P4 and P5 share an approach track (just like the old 4a/4b used to), whereas a train could depart from P6 at the same time as one arrives at either of P4 or P5. I'm not sure what the benefit has been of the extra platform- other than a longer walk to P4 and more missed connections!

Also, P4 gets rather crowded, which is more of a problem for North Downs trains, which arrive and then leave very quickly, so passengers wanting to board conflict with passengers alighting, than for Waterloo trains which lay over for half an hour so passenger flows are one way.  One approach would be to put Waterloo trains on P4 and P6, with North Downs on P5, benefiting from the greater space available on P5/P6.