Reading improvements milestones

[davetheguard]

The Festival Line is part complete, it is complete between Reading and High Level Junction, part way over the flyover. From Easter the Festival Line will open beyond High Level Junction and will connect with the relief lines at Reading West Junction, going under the flyover. Note that Reading West Junction is now no longer on the 'Main' lines as the flyover goes over it.

From Easter Crosscountry trains have a number of options when departing for and arriving from Didcot.

- Festival lines can be used up to High Level junction and then the main lines from there to Didcot East (This is what XC trains do currently)
- Festival lines all the way to Reading West Junction and then the relief lines to Didcot East
- If reversing in Platform 8 the main lines can be used all the way to Didcot East
- Or finally if using a relief line platform the relief lines can be used all the way to Didcot East.

So a great number more options than XC had previously!

I stand corrected; thanks for the comprehensive and interesting response!

 

[swt_passenger]

When were proposals for improved flow through the station first suggested?

The main planning work for this project got underway about 2007, after DfT triggered it off, is the explanation in the planning documents submitted to Reading Council, but I've no idea how long it has been sitting dormant on the wish list as far as the overall railway is concerned.

When you consider (as an example of improving junction flow) that the LSWR were aiming to grade separate Woking in the 1930s, how long do you go back in GW history to find similar ideas cropping up?

 

[Buttsy]

It is to be completely opened after the Easter Blockade.

Trains have been using it as far as the high level junction since the new year, as explained yesterday by Louis97...

That is what I was alluding too, as my mate who is heavily involved with the track work as a main engineer on the project referred to it as.

 

[BananaRepublic]

I was under the impression that the Easter work removes the conflicting movements between stone trains (from the Mendips to Acton Yard), and trains on the Up & Down Main Lines......

Most stone trains will use the Feeder Lines and avoid conflicting movements with the Main Lines, but there are still quite a few that will route via platform 7 or 8 and therefore will have to cross the Mains.
From looking at RTT, it a appears to be a case of maximising available paths through the station and platform occupancy.

 

[MarkyT]

The third one appears to shew a space left to be able to join the Main line from Reading West towards Tilehurst, beyond the flyover, without going first onto the Relief lines...

I don't think there is room alongside the viaduct once you get round the bend.

Traffic using the west curve between Reading West and Tilehurst will be almost exclusively freight trains using the Reliefs west of Reading, so there's no justification for direct grade segregated links to the Mains. I think Whitehouse Junction (former Scours Lane Junction) will eventually regain it's long fast left- hand full ladder across all lines if it isn't back in already. That will provide the flexibility for freights to transfer to and from the mains during rare planned or emergency diversions. As explained by others, reversing XC trains from the South Coast dealt with in either pl.3 or 7 can use connections on the flyover to join the Down main towards Didcot and trains on the Up Main from Didcot can be routed to 3 or 7 via the Festival Line which grade segregates such movements from the Down Main and the Feeder lines, but crosses other flows on the level, including some moves between Reading station and the Westbury line and all freights using the west curve.

 

[David Goddard]

Will be quite useful to have all XC trains into either 3 or 7. Keeps them away from the Mains and also means that when they are ten late on arrival I might still be able to catch my bus!

 

[swt_passenger]

Will be quite useful to have all XC trains into either 3 or 7. Keeps them away from the Mains and also means that when they are ten late on arrival I might still be able to catch my bus!

You won't have that though, as I have explained on more than one occasion. If you check out RTT for dates after Easter you'll see that XC trains that terminate at Reading still use P13 or P14, but through trains use P8 almost as often as P7. Many westbound XC trains will use the Festival Line only as far as High Level Jn then join the down main; in the up direction there are a number of XC services that cross from Up Main to Festival Line at High Level Jn.

--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

I think Whitehouse Junction (former Scours Lane Junction) will eventually regain it's long fast left- hand full ladder across all lines if it isn't back in already...

Whitehouse Junction is not shown in the post Easter layout. All there is at Scours Lane is the connection from the up relief to the up passenger loop, that runs alongside the depot.

I reckon the first ladder encountered in the Didcot direction will be Tilehurst East.

 

[MarkyT]

I reckon the first ladder encountered in the Didcot direction will be Tilehurst East.

Quite right, I neglected to look at the next page in the sectional appendix!

 

[HowardGWR]

Is there a decent track layout page for the Reading area (not diagrammatic or vague like the NR ones) that has the detail as good as the excellent Carto.Metro website provides for London?

 

[IrishDave]

Is there a decent track layout page for the Reading area (not diagrammatic or vague like the NR ones) that has the detail as good as the excellent Carto.Metro website provides for London?

Here's one I drew a while ago of the post-Easter 2015 layout - better quality version can be found at http://railwaydave.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/what-is-intercity-express-programme-and.html towards the bottom - hopefully that's of some use?

 

[TheKnightWho]

Here's one I drew a while ago of the post-Easter 2015 layout - better quality version can be found at http://railwaydave.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/what-is-intercity-express-programme-and.html towards the bottom - hopefully that's of some use?

No connection from platform 7 to the Southern lines without fouling the mainline? I know it's only 1 tpd, but I can see the Newcastle-Guildford XC service proving an annoyance if it's ever running late.

 

[louis97]

No connection from platform 7 to the Southern lines without fouling the mainline? I know it's only 1 tpd, but I can see the Newcastle-Guildford XC service proving an annoyance if it's ever running late.

The Newcastle-Guildford service uses the relief lines and then the 'Low level' fly-under to get to the Southern lines.

 

[TheKnightWho]

The Newcastle-Guildford service uses the relief lines and then the 'Low level' fly-under to get to the Southern lines.

Sure - but I thought they wanted additional flexibility to be able to run them into other platforms when needed without causing complications. This just seems like an oversight that would be very easy to solve.

 

[Buttsy]

Sure - but I thought they wanted additional flexibility to be able to run them into other platforms when needed without causing complications. This just seems like an oversight that would be very easy to solve.

I would have thought that access to 3 platforms on the north side of the layout would offer suitable flexibility along with less easy access to platforms 7 & 8.

 

[TheKnightWho]

I would have thought that access to 3 platforms on the north side of the layout would offer suitable flexibility along with less easy access to platforms 7 & 8.

I was thinking more in the event that a service is late, and access to platform 3 would be blocked by a timetabled train running on-time, and that disrupting it would be more trouble than it's worth.

I suppose with 1tpd this isn't a particularly major issue, although considering how often XC trains are delayed I would have thought they'd have planned for as much flexibility as possible, especially considering a simply switch-over between parallel lines would be a negligible expense here.

It would also provide SWT with an additional full-length platform to play with, assuming another AC/DC cross-over wouldn't be too expensive to install.

 

[swt_passenger]

I think the main problem with a proposed direct connection between the Platform 7 line (down Westbury) and the Southern via the Reading spur lines, (i.e. without going on and off the down main) is that the girder bridge over the underpass at the east end is only wide enough for the existing four tracks, the main and relief pairs.

I had also thought this was a logical connection to provide when looking at the track schematics a few years ago, but it seems that physical constraints prevent it.

Without widening the bridge the only alternative would be another ramp west of the underpass up towards Platform 7 - but as said that would currently help only the one train a day - it would fail any business case.

Of course if some of the ideas for through services (such as Gatwick to Oxford) ever took off, then it might make sense to have a separate direct route; but not while the present timetable is all there is.

 

[HowardGWR]

@IrishDave

Thanks very much - more or less what I was after. Regarding the XC on platform 7, I just don't see what on earth this is done for. Why not just send all trains from the west through the relief platforms. I don't know why the north to south underpass (GWR to SECR in old terminology) is single. It seems penny pinching and it would be better to keep such traffic away from the GWML surely. All XCs will stop at Reading, as will any new services to Gatwick.

 

[TheKnightWho]

I think the main problem with a proposed direct connection between the Platform 7 line (down Westbury) and the Southern via the Reading spur lines, (i.e. without going on and off the down main) is that the girder bridge over the underpass at the east end is only wide enough for the existing four tracks, the main and relief pairs.

I had also thought this was a logical connection to provide when looking at the track schematics a few years ago, but it seems that physical constraints prevent it.

Without widening the bridge the only alternative would be another ramp west of the underpass up towards Platform 7 - but as said that would currently help only the one train a day - it would fail any business case.

Of course if some of the ideas for through services (such as Gatwick to Oxford) ever took off, then it might make sense to have a separate direct route; but not while the present timetable is all there is.

Thanks - that makes a lot of sense.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

@IrishDave

Thanks very much - more or less what I was after. Regarding the XC on platform 7, I just don't see what on earth this is done for. Why not just send all trains from the west through the relief platforms. I don't know why the north to south underpass (GWR to SECR in old terminology) is single. It seems penny pinching and it would be better to keep such traffic away from the GWML surely. All XCs will stop at Reading, as will any new services to Gatwick.

I imagine that connection as I proposed could be a future upgrade. It would certainly solve the issue you mention here, and it would result in what would effectively be a doubling of the connection you mention, with one line directly through the eastern underpass to the reliefs from the SWT lines and the other taking the route through platform 7 and then onto the reliefs via the 3rd track in the western underpass. This layout would have an advantage over a doubled eastern underpass by allowing easy freight connections from the SWT lines to the Basingstoke line too without having to cross lots of relief lines.

Considering the amount of through traffic from the west to the SWT lines though, the present single connection is probably fine. As mentioned above though, further extensions (in the long-term, as BNS is freed up by HS2 giving XC more paths, but probably much sooner) could mean this single line connection will prove insufficient.

 

[davetheguard]

Here's one I drew a while ago of the post-Easter 2015 layout - better quality version can be found at http://railwaydave.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/what-is-intercity-express-programme-and.html towards the bottom - hopefully that's of some use?

Very clear IrishDave, thank you!

 

[swt_passenger]

... I don't know why the north to south underpass (GWR to SECR in old terminology) is single.

Structural strengthening of the abutment foundations in the form of mass concrete either side of the now single line. This is visible from a train heading to/from the Southern platforms 4-6.

Although I don't know for sure I think the track bed through the underpass was lowered a bit prior to reinstatement - this may be electrification related.

 

[MarkyT]

I think the main problem with a proposed direct connection between the Platform 7 line (down Westbury) and the Southern via the Reading spur lines, (i.e. without going on and off the down main) is that the girder bridge over the underpass at the east end is only wide enough for the existing four tracks, the main and relief pairs.

To avoid the bridge bottleneck, the connection might instead be put in at the top of the ramp at the throat of the southern platforms where the levels coincide again. A right-hand crossover between the platform 6 and 7 lines may be possible there. With possible future more frequent direct Guildford-Oxford axis services, Guildford bound trains could then continue to use the up platforms on the Relief side then cross to the Southern via the east end fly-under, whilst Oxford bound trains could instead cross the Southern throat and use the additional crossover to enter platform 7, then join the adjacent Down Main after stopping or pass under both Mains to the Relief side via the Festival line.

 

[TheKnightWho]

To avoid the bridge bottleneck, the connection might instead be put in at the top of the ramp at the throat of the southern platforms where the levels coincide again. A right-hand crossover between the platform 6 and 7 lines may be possible there. With possible future more frequent direct Guildford-Oxford axis services, Guildford bound trains could then continue to use the up platforms on the Relief side then cross to the Southern via the east end fly-under, whilst Oxford bound trains could instead cross the Southern throat and use the additional crossover to enter platform 7, then join the adjacent Down Main after stopping or pass under both Mains to the Relief side via the Festival line.

What you state there was exactly how I had been envisioning it, actually. I hadn't realised that people had thought I had been suggesting a connection further to the east until now, actually.

The issue with the way things are is that to get to the western underpass the current XC service has to foul the down relief line (assuming it was using the mainline from Oxford), which could prove a problem. Although any platform 7 use would mean it would have to foul the down mainline instead, at least having that flexibility there for a more frequent service would give the rest of the timetable a bit more leeway.

 

[MarkyT]

The issue with the way things are is that to get to the western underpass the current XC service has to foul the down relief line (assuming it was using the mainline from Oxford), which could prove a problem. Although any platform 7 use would mean it would have to foul the down mainline instead, at least having that flexibility there for a more frequent service would give the rest of the timetable a bit more leeway.

Even if using the Reliefs between Reading and Didcot, another problem with using the east fly-under for a Guildford to Oxford move is conflict with various Up Relief flows on the level that will all be vying for pl. 13, 14 and 15. These resources, especially the useful central 13 and 14 pair are likely to be getting busier and busier in the future with at least 2TPH Crossrail terminators planned and 4 TPH proposed for WRAtH. The latter were also going to be terminators originally but as recommended by the Western Route Study these may instead be more beneficially joined across Reading to other local services patterns in the west to create new direct journey opportunities as well as save on platform occupancy. And I haven't even mentioned freights yet.

 

[TheKnightWho]

Even if using the Reliefs between Reading and Didcot, another problem with using the east fly-under for a Guildford to Oxford move is conflict with various Up Relief flows on the level that will all be vying for pl. 13, 14 and 15. These resources, especially the useful central 13 and 14 pair are likely to be getting busier and busier in the future with at least 2TPH Crossrail terminators planned and 4 TPH proposed for WRAtH. The latter were also going to be terminators originally but as recommended by the Western Route Study these may instead be more beneficially joined across Reading to other local services patterns in the west to create new direct journey opportunities as well as save on platform occupancy. And I haven't even mentioned freights yet.

I imagine this is all why they've given XC access to platform 7 in the first place. It's a shame they haven't quite taken it to its full conclusion quite yet.

 

[Tio Terry]

Just as an aside, I was at Reading today and 70000 Britannia was routed over the flyover with just one strawberry and custard coach attached to it.

 

[D1009]

Whitehouse Junction is not shown in the post Easter layout. All there is at Scours Lane is the connection from the up relief to the up passenger loop, that runs alongside the depot.

I reckon the first ladder encountered in the Didcot direction will be Tilehurst East.

Not sure whether this question has been asked or answered earlier, but why was it considered necessary to rename Scours Lane Jn, particularly as it would appear it hasn't really been a junction since these alterations started?

 

[mr_moo]

Here's a layout plan of the finished station area.

 

[deltic08]

Here's a layout plan of the finished station area.

Has the speed limit on the mains been increased above 80mph?

 

[Buttsy]

Has the speed limit on the mains been increased above 80mph?

I understand that's one of the 'tidy-up' things that needs to be done after Easter blockade.

 

[mr_moo]

The full final layout is to be delivered this Easter but the lower PSR remains.

Removal of all redundant infrastructure, including Whitehouse junction, plus snagging, tidying and site close down will take place between Easter and August.

The final linespeed layout is due to be implemented in the August bank holiday.