Reading Station improvements

[whole diary]

[IndustryInsider]

Over 100000 views of this thread and 1424 posts - still a way to go before it overtakes the Cotswold Line Redoubling thread which has managed 156060 views and 1623 posts, but I reckon it'll get there sooner rather than later...!

[BerkshireBugsy]

Over 100000 views of this thread and 1424 posts - still a way to go before it overtakes the Cotswold Line Redoubling thread which has managed 156060 views and 1623 posts, but I reckon it'll get there sooner rather than later...!

Spooky...I was just wondering what the stats were!

[paul7575]

I was wondering if anyone knows what will happen to the 1989 Brunel station building long term once the new development is completed?

I know the 1980s monstrosity is labelled the 'Brunel Arcade', but referring to it as the 'Brunel station building' didn't half confuse me for a minute or so...   

I think the bottom line is that altering the Brunel Arcade and the possibility of re-siting the manned ticket office was looked at during the design and planning application stages but was found to have significant costs that would impart no operational advantage.  What they decided to do was put the money they had into passenger circulation facilities.

Nonetheless if I'd been designing it I think I'd have turfed the pub out of the 'heritage building' and resited it into the arcade.  I'd have had the manned ticket office where the pub now is with internal exits to the left and right into the new and existing gateline areas, which IMHO^▸ (in my humble opinion) would have given the advantage of a more obvious and central ticket office for 'strangers' to the station, with parallel routes either side directly to the new gatelines for those who already had tickets.

I had a good look round the transfer deck this afternoon, and as far as it goes so far I'm thinking 'WOW'.  It is absolutely massive - and following the discussion a few days ago, once you get used to the scale of it you can see a number of corners which could safely contain catering facilities without impacting on the circulation routes at all.  Difficult to explain but anyone who has a look round over the next few days will immediately realise this.

The north side ticket office was up and running, as were the two new gatelines - makes a lot of sense for the staff to have a 'soft start' over the weekend, I suppose with various shift changes it should ensure that many of the staff are already completely familiar with the layout before the Tuesday morning peak starts.

Photos available on flickr here, not mine:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/52834510@N00/

Paul

[Jonty]

Can you still ask for a 'platform' ticket nowadays, or will I need to buy a single to Reading West to have a gander?

[ellendune]

Camera 1 Tab 1 annoyingly shows activity of a large excavator next to Platform 11 and the old footbridge, but it is mainly off the field of vision. Its a Gilpin's machine and seems to be producing a lot of spoil. Is is demolishing the stairs at the end of the footbridge. This sort of activity is blocking platform 12 so would need to be done this weekend to allow work on the new platform 11 to continue without closing platform 12.

Anyone know what is going on?

UPDATE:  Some more photos just gone up on Flickr - Yes it is!

[Chris from Nailsea]

Can you still ask for a 'platform' ticket nowadays, or will I need to buy a single to Reading West to have a gander?

Wouldn't you need to buy a return - so you can get back out again, through the barriers? 

[Jonty]

Ah, good,point!

[ellendune]

A close look at Camera 2 Tab 2 shows that at least the top of the northern (P9/10) span of the old footbridge has gone!

[lbraine]

A close look at Camera 2 Tab 2 shows that at least the top of the northern (P9/10) span of the old footbridge has gone!

Good Spot ! There are 3:15am today - gone at 3:30.

Looks like the opportunity to get rid of the old while they can is too precious a one to pass up.

[ellendune]

The roof of the stairwell from the old footbridge down to P8/9 disappeared between 12:15 and 12:30 today Camera 2 Tab 2.

[Jeff]

Hmmmm....

I'm trying to be really positive here, and I haven't been to the station yet and have only seen the interior pics on flickr, but does anybody else feel that the signage is just...nowhere near good enough? I've had serious reservations about it over the past few weeks when looking at it on the webcams but was hoping that that was largely because those views were less than ideal, but having seen Mark & Naomi Iliff's and Dave C's pics on flickr (thankyou to all three of you) I have to say that my heart sank. In short, I think the signage is too small, is too "busy", and is too "late", especially on the Transfer Deck. I'm sure you know what I mean by "busy", ie small signs trying to convey too much information, but what I mean by "late" is that it looks as though one has to actually go to the signs to get key strategic directions (ie, on how to get to platform Xa or Yb, or to the exit), rather than have them convey that information from a distance. For example, the Transfer Deck is 100m long, but if I was a first-time emergee from the escalators at either end (as thousands of people will be on Tues) I would be faced with a very large, undifferentiated space stretching off into the distance, with no clear instinctive or signalled sense of where I should be aiming for. I would have to walk towards the central lift pods in order to read directional information, in what looks to be quite a small font. So that means that I wouldn't get that information until very "late" in my journey towards my desired platform. What I'd like to see instead would be very very large and prominent platform numbers on those pods, so large that they'd be visible from the other end of the Deck. I'm therefore hoping that those large blank panels on the pods are reserved for such large numerals. I also hope for large numerals immediately above/adjacent to the opening of the stair/escalators themselves. 

And my other concern is about the signage for people emerging from the lifts on the Deck; as I see it, one would alight from the train on platform Xa, enter a lift (which, as someone pointed out the other day, are themselves confusingly signed/numbered at platform level), and then emerge onto the Deck...facing straight back towards the stairs/escalators going to/from the platform that I'd just left. I think that will confuse people and so they'll spend valuable seconds trying to work out what has just happened and whether they'd actually selected the wrong lift, and I think that additionally they still also won't know instinctively/immediately which way to go next for the platform/exit that they did want. I think this designs-in congestion in front of the lift doors on the Deck, and that this might be further exacerbated by the people I described in the para above themselves gravitating towards the pods in order to get their own directional information.

Architects are trained to ensure that people's navigation of large and unfamiliar spaces, especially against the time-constraint of a train departure, should be largely intuitive, and that the design of those spaces should both facilitate that and also minimise reliance on signage. I really do hate to carp, but it seems to me that these spaces and pedestrian-flows are not intuitive, and furthermore that not only does there seem to be a corresponding over-reliance on signage but that that signage does not actually do its job very well.   

Or is it just me?

I should add that I'm not an architect, and nor am I moaner, I'm just an ordinary punter puzzled by why what seems to be some unnecessary complications in how to use this brand-new station.             

[paul7575]

I didn't get the impression that the signage is too small when seeing it for real - I think the pictures might be making it look small because the surrounds are so big. 

I think you have to allow for a certain amount of common sense, people ascending towards a station footbridge would surely expect to leave at one side or the other - and the mainly glass ends through which you can see the surrounding streetscape seem to immediately tell you which way is the town centre and which way isn't, even if you ignore the signage.

I'm no expert, but I suspect that safety comes into the orientation of lift doors so that on exit from a lift you'd normally be heading along the platform, rather than towards the platform edge.  Obviously you can go to the expense of having lifts with doors on differnt sides, eg 90 degrees apart, but I'd think that most people would be familiar with turning round to face where they've come from when exiting a lift.  So intuitively if you enter a lift at platform level knowing that Reading town centre is on your left, you'd then assume on exiting that it would be on your right.

Lastly platform numbers - again intuitively you'd expect them to appear in numerical order, so if heading to (say) P12 you'd expect it to be further away from whatever first number you see, whether that is P8 if coming from the south, or P15 coming from the north.  There are pretty obvious platform numbers at the top of each bank of escalators/stairs, however read on to my next point.

What might be an issue is something you didn't mention, but all the signs have A or B suffixes.  I know only too well happens at Southampton, where all 4 platforms are subdivided and labelled with A and B suffixes.  What happens is that long trains are shown on the PIS^▸ (Passenger Information System) with a number only, so for instance heading for a 12 car train on P2, strangers look for signs for P2.  As they don't realise that P2 actually means P2A and P2B together, and coming out the lift there are no obvious directions to P2!  IMHO^▸ (in my humble opinion) in this case it would be better for long trains to show on the PIS as P2A/B.   

Paul

[BerkshireBugsy]

What might be an issue is something you didn't mention, but all the signs have A or B suffixes.  I know only to well happens at Southampton, where all 4 platforms are subdivided and labelled with A and B suffixes.  What happens is that long trains are shown on the PIS^▸ (Passenger Information System) with a number only, so for instance heading for a 12 car train on P2, strangers look for signs for P2.  As they don't realise that P2 actually means P2A and P2B together, and coming out the lift there are no obvious directions to P2!  IMHO^▸ (in my humble opinion) in this case it would be better for long trains to show on the PIS as P2A/B.   

Paul

I'm with you on this Paul-Birmingham New Street is another example.

[bobm]

Especially as it was not all that long ago that Reading had Platforms 4A and 4B - where were not the same as Platform 4.

[ellendune]

Network rail have posted these images on twitter

pic.twitter.com/44z6DBUYKG

pic.twitter.com/nqQ5kUVHlX

Sorry never worked out how to do images