Reading Station improvements

[whole diary]

[BerkshireBugsy]

There also appears to be a few oddities with regards to the platform allocation with some trains too.  For example, I get the train into Reading from Guildford, which arrives at 17.54.  We're always held outside Reading waiting for a Waterloo bound train to leave the station (timetabled at 17.56)  We wait for it to pass and then trundle in to platform 5

It seems odd that you have 3 platforms, yet trains are still being held outside the station. I should also say that there are no other trains in the platform when we arrive, so it can't be because of platform congestion.

In the morning the 634 Reading to Gatwick seems to be scheduled for P4 by default but on a couple of occasions it has been switched from P4 to P5/P6 at the last minute so pax seem to have got into the habit of waiting at the end of P4/P5 until the train can be seen on the horizon.

[paul7575]

Yes, I am often on the same train, and was quite surprised to find we are still waiting outside the station at the same time and place as was the case in the days when there were only two platforms and a single track approach over the bridge!

To allow an arriving train into P4 while a departing train leaves P5 would require an additional length of 'third track' and at least two more sets of points. As installed, P4 is a simple branch to the left off the straight route into P5 but this is beyond the crossovers between up and down lines. 

AFAICS^▸ (As Far As I Can See) the move you expect is going to be available in the opposite half hour, but only assuming the Waterloo train is leaving P6 directly onto the up line.

Maybe the timetable will be altered in future to optimise the capabilities of the three platforms?

The other point I've just remembered is that all the time P6 was out of use, the available track layout was effectively the same as the old set up prior to the alterations startimng, so any time in the last week that P6 was temporarily out of use it would also have had the same effect?

Paul

[mjones]

Ah, of course. I was naively assuming that approaching trains go straight into P4 so wouldn't conflict with departures from P5.  Hopefully with P6 fully functional this will give a bit more flexibility, as presumably a P6 departure can take place simulaneously with a P4/5 arrival, assuming platforms are available?

[paul7575]

As far as I can work out yes - P6 departures are independent of both possible arrivals. 

Track layouts at a multi-platform terminus (ie more than two) on a two track railway can get quite complicated - but without adding flyovers or underpasses there will always be certain moves that cause conflicts across the whole approach layout, either on arrival or departure.

Paul     

[JayMac]

Here's an improvement at Reading station that Network Rail have kept very quiet - TGVs^▸ (Train a Grande Vitesse)!! According to a street sign on a road near the station:



http://goo.gl/maps/nOol

 

[paul7575]

Webcam nrreading01 (cameras 1 and 2) showing steelwork for canopy support have been put in on both the P12/13 and P14/15 islands overnight...

Paul

[BerkshireBugsy]

Here's an improvement at Reading station that Network Rail have kept very quiet - TGVs^▸ (Train a Grande Vitesse)!! According to a street sign on a road near the station:



http://goo.gl/maps/nOol

 

@BNM that is how rumours start!!

[IndustryInsider]

Will we see any suitable passenger facilities such as seating on Platforms 4/5/6 I wonder?

[ellendune]

Webcam nrreading01 (cameras 1 and 2) showing steelwork for canopy support have been put in on both the P12/13 and P14/15 islands overnight...

Paul

Why did it have to be done in the middle of the night?  Surely a possession is not required for the crane to work there?

[IndustryInsider]

Perhaps it was considered safer as there would have been fewer workers on site, fewer lorries delivering stuff and so on?

[paul7575]

From a few random checks on the webcams I think there is normally a significant night shift activity Mon - Fri anyway, it's not likely to be associated with possession requirements.

By the way, there's some canopy 'internal structure' appeared now on P14/15, and again it was being progressed in the small hours.  Might just be normal construction site working practices, spread everything out over 24 hours?

Paul

[mjones]

Platform 6 still seems to be out of use. No visible work going on at the moment, though last week there seemed to be some repairs to uneven paving being done.  Is there some more fundamental problem? Given the previously discussed conflicts that occur when accessing 4 and 5 it seems odd to leave it with that pair being the ones that get used.

[BerkshireBugsy]

Platform 6 still seems to be out of use. No visible work going on at the moment, though last week there seemed to be some repairs to uneven paving being done.  Is there some more fundamental problem? Given the previously discussed conflicts that occur when accessing 4 and 5 it seems odd to leave it with that pair being the ones that get used.

I don't think it is true to say P6 is out of use as the North Downs trains I used on a frequent basis have pulled in there a couple of time but it certainly seems to be the case that it is not the "platform of preference". Certainly around about 615am there is normally an SWT^▸ (South West Trains) service on P5 and the 634 Gatwick service is advertised as P4...and then sometimes get moved to P6 at the last minute.

Due to overrunning engineering works at Theale last Friday I had to work from home but this morning I noticed the "2012 Olympic" destination signs were up. Did these go up on Friday?

[paul7575]

I asked a chap from the contractors on Friday, and he said the platform was definitely operationally available, but because they were still dealing with the snagging list the signallers were not routinely using it.  I don't think there's a fundamental problem.

Live departure boards (arrivals option) showed it in use over the weekend though not this morning - which makes sense if the contractors aren't about on Sat afternoon and all day Sun?

PS - webcam2 showing steelwork frame for the stairs at the P7 side of the transfer deck now.  Gives a good idea of the scale of the whole thing, the escalators will be between the stairs and the concrete wall that's soon to be cast...

Paul 

[JayMac]

I've just been watching the various time-lapse from the lobstertv cams at Reading. It's quite amusing to see the pauses in work, which are obviously weekends, when cranes, trucks, diggers and mixers all appear to suddenly stop and the orange clad army of workers disappear. Rather like everything is catching its breath. Noting though that the purple flashes of FGW^▸ (First Great Western) rolling stock continues without missing a beat!