As of this morning the covering had been replaced by the same temporary corrugated metal in use elsewhere in the station.

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19402133)

Virgin Trains in West Coast Main Line court action
Breaking news

Virgin Trains has said it has started court proceedings over the government's decision to award a new franchise to transport company FirstGroup.

Virgin had run the franchise since 1997, but lost to FirstGroup, prompting it to demand a review of the process.

Labour had also urged the government to delay the signing of the contract so that MPs^▸ (Member of Parliament) could examine it.

But earlier Transport Secretary Justine Greening said there would be no delay in signing the FirstGroup deal.

Indeed, and to top all that a major signal outage near Paddington last night (26/07) around 8pm resulting in a second successive awful journey out to Reading and then no ongoing connection for >1 hour due to displaced crew.
I would say not a good week overall, but last Friday was a disaster too

Thanks for the heads-up. I'd been wondering why the Greenford services were so badly affected.

06:19 Mortimer to Reading arrived at Mortimer 06:33 and then stopped/started arriving into Reading 07:02
The 06:16 Mortimer to Basingstoke was cancelled along of course with the 06:45 return train.

Wherever you look at the moment things are happening:
Track is being laid west of the station, to the north of the main line.
The foundations for the new platform 6 are almost all excavated.
The steel core for the first of the supporting pylons on platform 8/9 is up
To the north, the main girders for the new deck are rapidly going in.
The northern entrance is rapidly taking shape, I took a couple of pics earlier this evening
http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o558/ticktock1232/0503a.jpg
http://i1147.photobucket.com/albums/o558/ticktock1232/0503b.jpg

What is it with broken down freight trains on this stretch? It's been less than a week since the last peak time failure (18th, morning). There was another failure at Bramley and a fourth at Reading West all in the past few months.

Things progress apace.
Platform 10 is now narrowed again and structural works are taking place so close to the hoardings that they overhang it and are cladded.
There was a nice view down into the subway section through one of the viewing holes on the platform.
Sorry for the poor lighting, it's was rather dull first thing.

Thanks for the very speedy response - that's good to know.

I wonder if someone could help me.
I wish to travel from Reading to Kidderminster on the morning of Friday 6th (Good Friday)
Does anyone know if the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) service running at 09:52 to Worcester would be an HST^▸ (High Speed Train), or something else ?
I once ended up on a Turbo all the way from Malvern to Reading and would prefer not to repeat the experience (and would take a Cross-country via Brum instead).

TIA^▸ (Transient Ischemic Attack (aka "mini-stroke")),

J.

Having endured these 'new' trains for some weeks now as part of my daily commute to London I can but concur with this level of frustration.

The punctuality is appalling with the departure boards in both directions regularly showing delays. Whilst waiting for the delayed 6:19 from Mortimer last week, the 6:16 down to Basingstoke was even then showing a 10 minute delay.
Even when stated as on-time the trains will run a few minutes late. All within tolerance but this was very much the exception with the Turbo services.

The reliability would appear to be highly questionable judging by the (welcome) number of times that Turbo trains have been back on the route during the week.

It seems to take an inordinate amount of time for the door light to illuminate when stopping at stations and then again to get moving again.

The interior decor is a thin veneer of modernity over what is clearly a dated shell. Despite the space from the extra carriage the seating layout feels cramped. Many people prefer to stand despite the presence of plenty of seating. The sets of three seats are fit only for children or two adults sharing bag space on the centre one.

To address one point in the quoted article though - to their credit, FGW^▸ (First Great Western) did compensate first class season ticket holders for the cessation of that part of the service.

Those lift shaft sections are indeed very quick to assemble, this one appeared over the course of a single day.

The steel superstructure surrounding (though mainly to the north of) the concrete wall has been rapidly rising over the past week. There is also additional concrete structure being added between the wall and platform 10.

Judging by the new line of metal girders now on platform 10 I imagine it is going to be narrowed in the not too distant future.

(Apologies for the v. quick snap taken at dawn. My first time posting here)