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eightonedee
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« Reply #7 on: August 07, 2024, 20:45:10 » |
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Here’s a comprehensive personal view from someone who commuted most days changing trains at Reading between 2001 and the onset on lockdown in 2020, and intermittently during the inter- and post-lockdown period until retirement in April 2022. I also usually go to Reading, my nearest large town, by train, so still use it (I’d guess) about 10 times a year.
Pluses-
1- So much more circulation space than the old station. Apart from the area around platforms 4 to 6, particularly platform 4, where there is simply not enough room for Gatwick-bound passengers and their luggage when a busy incoming train arrives and disgorges its load. Sometime ago, I posted about a conversation with what appeared to be senior GW▸ staff who acknowledged that this was a shortcoming. Space is also a bit tight in places on the higher-numbered between the platform edges and some platform buildings. However, when I pass through other stations (let’s name and shame Birmingham New Street in particular) I appreciate how much better than many it is, and it’s difficult to imagine how it coped before the rebuilding. Remember the divided overbridge to the multi-storey car-park? It also highlights how cramped some of the 1980s-rebuilt stations are – see Guildford or Oxford, for example.
2- Generally, it has a bright airy and open feel to it – perhaps too much – see below! It’s up there with two personal favourites, York and Newcastle Central, and much better than claustrophobic warrens like New Street, or frantic crowded barns – like London Bridge.
3- Good facilities for the mobility impaired.
4- Apart from the pigeon problem, and some extensive rust on some roof pillars, it seems to be standing up to its heavy use quite well
Minuses (some partly addressed)
1 - The original signage was poor. Even friends familiar with the old station and the town commented on this. There has been some improvement, notably the large comprehensive departures board just inside the town entrance once a few initial glitzes were resolved. It’s clear and has enough full information sufficiently far in advance that it seems to cater well for the numbers and range of services. The problem elsewhere appears to be a combination of –
A - the standard Network Rail white-on-mid blue signage with text too small, a big step backwards from the British Rail standard “Rail Alphabet” black or red on white that I understand from those who claim expertise is still regarded as the gold standard.
B – the original (and remaining orange on black) electronic boards are too small, both the departure boards - such as the one by the new enquiries stand on the overbridge, and the overhead ones around the station. They cannot show all the information (time due, time expected, destination, platform) together, and the overhead ones have to spool through 3 alphabetical and 2 chronological screens to show all the trains. Not ideal if you are rushing between platforms at a busy and large station when your incoming connection is late! SNCF▸ seems to do so much better… I think his might be a general problem at Network Rail stations.
C – The design of the lift shafts, with the doors recessed into the shafts, coupled with a strange lack of overhead signs perpendicular to the shafts so that they can be seen along the platform or overbridge (as the case may be). Many applications of first pale orange and later bright yellow signs has just about made them visible to the stranger to the station!
D – Some really daft omissions – notably the signs on the sides of the escalators that seem to be sending people up the escalators to get to the lifts, instead of around the back of them where the lift shafts actually are (I’ll try to remember to attach a photo to this post).
2 – As hinted at above, there’s not a lot of shelter. Pity the gateline staff at the town entrance standing in the enormous aperture open to the south-west wind. Pity the passenger hoping to find somewhere inside in the dry to wait. There’s a lack of inside waiting on many platforms. The waiting room at the “B” end of platforms 12 and 13, from which some of the busiest west-bound commuter and shopper trains depart have just 8 inside seats – in a building the size of a 50-seater single-deck bus. Rain blows into the overbridge, and the outer ends of platforms 4 to 6 are particularly exposed, perched on top of the Vastern Road bridge. Diesel smoke can also blow into the space between the deck and roof of the overbridge from trains standing running their engines, making it unpleasant for most, risky for those with respiratory problems. The upswept edges to the platform roofs seem to contribute to the funnelling of the fumes, as well as providing poor shelter to passengers on the platforms below when it rains.
3 – There’s one continuing issue about the dark charcoal material used for the floor of the overbridge and some areas at platform level. If wet it becomes very slippery, and sometimes in humid weather (usually involving the cooling of very damp air) it “sweats” with the same result. Mopping and rugs have been used, but it is surprising in this age of health and safety how unsuitable flooring materials are used in areas of high public use. That comment applies to other building elsewhere too – why is so much lethally slippery polished “marble” laid in places where wet gets in or is walked in on the shoes of visitors?
4 – Missing the opportunity to create a really good public transport interchange in Reading town centre. 50 years ago, taxis and “Corporation” buses ran from Station Hill just outside the main entrance and Alder Valleys from old covered bus station opposite under Top Rank, connected by an underpass to the station (OK – it was one of the most insalubrious places in the entire town). It’s quite a trek to the open bus stands and taxi rank on the Caversham side.
5 – The escalators. When they were being installed, an architect acquaintance told me it was a bad idea, as they are not designed to be used in the open, or “part-open”. He has been proved right!
Issues now apparently resolved-
1 – The lack of information points. It has taken a long time to arrive at the position where there is a permanent information booth on the overbridge, although when I now travel through mostly out of peak time it is often un-manned.
2 – The habit of letting off two or more announcements loudly on different platforms at the same time, so that you were both deafened by the volume but had no idea if what was being said might be relevant to you. This hasn’t happened for a long time, but it might only have been done to annoy peak-time commuters!
This might look like a long whinge, but reflects how some minor irritations rankle when you have had a long day at the office, and you get stuck for half an hour for a missed connection, be that due to delay or cancellation. However, it generally does a good job at handing the volume of traffic and is the station Reading needed and deserved. I have noticed how old or drab many other main city stations look now – Southampton Central or Plymouth are two that spring to mind.
It was also remarkable that the whole Reading station reconstruction and associated remodelling of the busy junctions to the west was reportedly completed within time and budget, given the site constraints and key nodal point on the network. It can be done!
This was of course now over 10 years ago. We missed marking the tenth anniversary of its opening back in April on this forum, so a belated “Happy Birthday” new Reading Station!
PS - apologies, the attached image seems to have rotated through 90 degrees - perhaps it's trying to work out where the lifts are..
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