Car parking at Tilehurst

[whole diary]

[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.)

[Lee]

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 increase its superficial waffle content.)

You are Angus Loughran, and I claim my five pounds!