Transport for london travel update announcements in locations outside the capital.

I have an even better idea! We could take those buses and run them along tarmac roads between Portishead and Bristol allowing private car owners to also do the same........................... oh no, hang on!

It's worth noting that, because the land is built up outside the station, it would have been possible to have a short tunnel (or wide bridge) across the front of the station, then the bus terminus and through route accessed by stairs, escalators and lifts below. Of course this wouldn't have stopped large advertising screens appearing.

Bloody awful and unnecessary. Part of the councils 'vision' to completely ignore anything of former civic pride and flog themselves as 'were not far from london'?

I don't know what the idea of the Station Hill closure was, simply that the lead transport councilor had wanted it closed for a long time. I recall him not wanting arriving people to cross a road outside the station, but this road crossing has simply been moved further into the town centre at the carfax of Friar Street and Station Road. The latter has a narrow pavement down one side cluttered with bus stops which arrived when the stops were evicted from Station Hill and re-distributed to points around the Town Centre.

When the 'Stations' (as it was still called by older drivers) terminus was still in use, before the closure of the road, I was under the impression that the bus stops within the layby that existed against the wall of the station was rail land and the outer stops on the island were the public land. So I should well imagine that the boundary between the two is an unmarked line across the front of the station where the island used to be, although a section of that has been taken down to the original land level.

From a public transport point of view, closing Station Hill to buses is one of the daftest things that Reading Borough Council have ever done! It is difficult to believe that they own the bus company given how little they communicated with each other regarding the change. The closure has removed, not just the terminus for every bus route bar the cross town routes (which because of closure and diversion is down to one), it has removed the only route across the Town Centre available when the others are closed for various reasons, forcing buses on diversion into regular traffic on the Inner Distribution Road. Also missing now is the space for buses to wait time or stack for the next journey. The bus network has ended up all radial routes with no Town Centre terminus. Some routes don't even make it to the Railway station!

What has been left behind after the terminus was removed is a large private/public square backed by the ugliest NCP car park ever built, a large area for idling taxis and cars awaiting loved ones (so buses have been replaced by car access) and a ludicrously ugly wall of a wheelchair ramp. Occasionally I have even seen said councilor stood overlooking his creation and looking very pleased with himself. In return the buses got the self styled north entrance 'interchange', which is some bus stops at the northern entrance to the station. These are used only by buses heading for north Reading (which have been cut back enormously by Reading Buses) and require a double back manoeuvre during the route to use. It isn't even possible to get parallel with the kerb on one of the stops because of the road layout, a poor use of space. There isn't really much way back for the town's public transport now, the streets are at capacity in the Town Centre for buses and there is no more space for additional routes, unless cross town routes were re-instated, but the one way nature of the Town Centre makes these complicated.

So I shouldn't have been surprised when the tacky advertising screen arrived as all other planning seems to be ill thought out.

Cheers

I was thinking more at night time, but yes fair enough both directions.

Interesting as there isn't just the level crossing here but a foot crossing straight after it, unless that has been closed. I would hazard a guess that many live in this exclusive area because the railway is there to take them to london (where else). They can't have it both ways, especially as people who live in the same area have had a tendency to treat this level crossing like a give way road. I tire of the individual attitude of British people, how disruptive can an hourly train horn be?

Learn something everyday. I saw the HST as a go anywhere train. Can't be many places they can't go though.

Neither do I. I try to go for cycle rides on routes that were stopper train only served (I.E not served by the HST^▸ (High Speed Train)'s) simply because I could just turn back at any point I felt like.

People are strange.

A few years back a gentleman in his 70's (well practiced with slam door stock you would have thought) came into the vestibule I was dwelling in on the Cornish train and exclaimed he was getting off at Bodmin Parkway, the next stop. As the train came to a standstill he looked at me and said
"Is this it?"
"Yep this is the one."
Then he stood there against the door
"Well, are they going to let me off?"
"You will have to let yourself off" I told him and then opened the door for him.
"Not a very good service" he said and off he went without even a thank you!
I noted that he was the only person to get off at Bodmin from that carriage and wondered how the scenario would have turned out had I not been there. How some people get through life I will never know.

We will no longer see people struggling to figure out how to open the door to leave the train. We will also no longer see the guard or platform staff walking alongside the length of the train to close a door not closed by the last to get on or off.

As the stop signs at Tilehurst on the main line platforms are still the Network Southeast ones, I wouldn't have thought there would be any hurry to get rid of them.

This occurs everywhere and demonstrates the lack of communication between councils and bus companies. The three councils which cover the suburban areas of Reading not in the Borough, continue to make mistakes with public transport investment. A few years ago South Oxfordshire council changed the road layout at Peppard Common without even realising it was a bus terminus, leaving buses to reverse for a few weeks until somebody let them know. Wokingham council, that cover east Reading, fitted Kassel kerbs on the wrong side of the road on a terminal loop in Lower Earley. Reading borough council even own Reading buses but have still fitted Kassel kerbs in the wrong position at stops and renew bus flags long out of use. One was renewed a few years back on a section of route which buses could no longer fit down and hadn't been used since the 80's. It is still there now!
Public transport planning should include all parties and mimic the corporation transport departments of the past. However, things have changed and bus companies now see themselves as selling a product rather than providing an integrated service and no longer like to bother themselves with attention to detail like the location or use of stops. Similar, councils simply install the latest bus stop technology at every stop whether on a route or not and don't seem to be bothered if it works or not just happy to tick a box.
Incidentally, many Kassel kerb installations I see around the country, unless parallel with the roadway, are largely in the wrong locations and useless, damaging the vehicles more than helping them. Most modern vehicles have the drop floor ability and wheelchair ramps so these types of kerb are no longer necessary and it's about time money stopped being wasted on them. They are a bit of a watered down version of the original idea anyhow. To be useful, the gutter would have to be part of the kerb to provide level boarding.

I'm quite surprised that it being in Reading is even mentioned. Some developments just point out the journey time on the earliest train to london and that's it! It's as if there are no trains going anywhere else from here. Why wouldn't you let people know how long it takes to other places of potential work or leisure, Oxford, Basingstoke, Bath, the south coast, direct trains to three airports etc. Why not broaden the range of people your attempting to sell to? Or are london workers the only ones willing to pay that much to live in Reading? What a daft world.

Anyhow I'm still quite excited that a new station is opening in my town and the possibility of getting the train to watch the biccy men avoid relegation in the future.

Quite! There are a fair few people who are under the impression that crossrail is a brand new fast line to london fully underground all the way into the Thames Valley. Many estate agents appear to be selling it as such, and as a result housing prices reflect this.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/reading-named-the-best-place-for-first-time-buyers-in-the-uk-2019-89xtwqvlh

Hmm.
Not sure this is true for many from here in the first place.

That's a good question, as the road in Green Park and the lane over the railway remain isolated from each other to prevent through traffic. It would make sense to have some access to at least drop people off on that side. There is the possibility that parking could occur on Kirton's Farm Road i guess.
This is the housing development happening right next to the station
https://www.berkeleygroup.co.uk/developments/berkshire/reading/bankside-gardens