A new / updated thread forming the basis of our sticky master thread, as at April 2026The line up the Kennet Valley from Reading, then over the watershed and onwards to Newbury, is know as the "Berks and Hants" - something of a misnome in modern terms as none of it is in Hampshire - rather it's in Berkshire and Wiltshire.
Map under Creating Commons license. The section from Reading to Westbury is the section covered in this thread on this board, but we do well to consider the section onward to Taunton as we look at its uses
It's a two track line, with considerable freight (stone) traffic along its length from stone quarries in Somerset destined for the South East of England. There are four passenger services setting out from Reading along the line:
1. Local trains, normally calling at all stations
to Newbury edited in, electric, from the side platforms at Reading. Every Hour
2. An hourly Paddington to Newbury service, calling at a handful of the intermediate station, some extended to Bedwyn and others with a local connection at Newbury for the three stations to Bedwyn
3. A train every 2 hours from Paddington, "semi-fast" to Westbury and beyond. These have a mix of final destination - Paignton for many of them, but also Plymouth, Exeter, Taunton and Frome. Occasional trains terminate at Westbury, and on summer Saturdays one even carries on to Newquay.
4. An express service every hour from Paddington, calling at Reading (some only to pick up passengers), then headed our West, next stop Taunton or occasionally even futher.
All of these services have some peak hour variation, and the long distance ones have end-of-service variation. The overnight sleeper service from London to Plymouth and Cornwall also passes this way on most nights, but can also go a number of other ways if engineering works are taking place.
Like "all roads lead to Rome", all train services lead to, or from Reading for London. We consider "Bedwyn shuttles" as part of service no. 2 - they all used to carry on to Bedwyn and when the new 5 car
IET▸ trains were introduced, the turnback siding was extended to handle them. But then come engineering issues with those trains, and covid, factors came in, the rail industry switched do using electric trains as far as they could, and a diesel shuttle train onward.
