New bridge and resignalling kick-start Reading station upgrade

The first phase of the six-year, £850m project to remove bottlenecks around Reading station and improve the station environment was completed over Christmas and the New Year. The work included re-signalling 100 miles of railway around Reading, and lifting a 1,000 tonne railway bridge into place. The work required 16,000 man hours.

Bill Henry, project director for Network Rail in Reading said: “The work is the launch pad for our project to improve Reading’s station and railway. The bridge will provide space for track to serve new platforms at the station, and the state of the art signalling technology we’re installing will allow us to make huge changes to the track layout to increase capacity and cut delays. This work will benefit passengers along the entire Western route, from south Wales and the south west to London.”

This year, the project will progress with demolition of the old signal box and other buildings north of the station to make way for new platforms. New entrances and a new passenger footbridge will follow, opening for use in 2013.

The six phases of the project are due to be completed in 2016 and will include five new platforms as well as new track layout and new station entrances. The scheme will cater for a forecast doubling of the number of passengers using Reading station by 2030.