Reading Green Park Station

[jayah]

...but - if that is true (as to the cause of the delay) - it begs the question of why this wasn't done at the design stage? These items aren't exactly novel.

Any 'gotcha' process designed to trap trivial snags against a huge compliance matrix will by design find many issues and waste huge amount of time and money.

Reading Council could look at the state of their pavements and give the local taxpayer a far better return on that money.

 

[stuving]

There are two visual and tactile marker lines, with different purposes. They were agreed between the sponsors (Reading Borough Council) and DfT as an exemption from Standard 4.2.1.12(6) of the Persons with Reduced Mobility (PRM) NTSN. This was provided in a letter dated 8/12/21, which specifies:

Your application proposes to apply the Railway Industry Standard (RIS) 7016-INS Issue 1.2, Part 9.4, which allows:
1. A visual marking to mark the edge of the danger area (1500mm away from the edge of the platform based on your station risk assessment);
2. A tactile surface to mark the edge of the platform to aid the visually impaired in boarding the trains (760mm away from the edge of the platform, as per current industry practice); and
3. Other mitigations, like audio announcements at the station, to be employed to reduce the risk to passengers in not marking the edge of the danger area through a tactile surface.
Your letter explained that this RIS-7016-INS is based on the RSSB research paper T1118 (“Optimising the design and position of platform markings designed to keep people away from the platform edge”). This research paper demonstrated that the tactile paving to mark the edge of the platform should remain in a consistent place across the network, and that other mitigating measures should be employed to ensure passengers stand at a safe place on the platform.

The danger in the area extending to 1500 mm from the platform edge is aerodynamic buffetting from intermodal trains passing at linespeed. The letter contains a lot more, including the alternatives that were not preferred.

An almost identical letter applies to Brent Cross West, so similar marker tiles should be appearing there too. There is a DfT web page containing a list of the exemptions and dispensations issued by this bit of DfT, from various regulations, some of which are on-line but most are "Available by Request".

 

[FGW_DID]

Reading Green Park expected to be open by the end of this month.

 

[Mikey C]

Reading Green Park expected to be open by the end of this month.

A certain irony that it opens just as Reading FC are relegated to League One...

 

[Mollman]

A certain irony that it opens just as Reading FC are relegated to League One...

Be useful for the Pompy fans at least

 

[FGW_Lad]

Be useful for the Pompy fans at least

The way the owner is running the club into the ground, I’d be surprise if there aren’t more Pompey fans there next season!

 

[ChewChewTrain]

A certain irony that it opens just as Reading FC are relegated to League One...

Thanks for putting me out of my misery. I’d switched off yesterday’s match at 82 minutes and hadn’t had the b**ls to look up the result since. I knew the inevitable confirmation of final doom would find me eventually, though I didn’t think it would be here.

I look forward to using Green Park station when I get my car serviced. Brand new stations are a rare thing indeed in this part of the world.

 

[FGW_DID]

Date for the Diary!

Public opening of Reading Green Park: Saturday 27th May 2023.

 

[mangyiscute]

Date for the Diary!

Public opening of Reading Green Park: Saturday 27th May 2023.

gonna be my first time of going to a new station opening when the first train arrives, since i live in reading

 

[LUYMun]

Date for the Diary!

Public opening of Reading Green Park: Saturday 27th May 2023.

Where is such a source for this date?

 

[800301]

Where is such a source for this date?

Should be a press release for it on Monday

 

[FGW_DID]

Where is such a source for this date?

An email I have in front of me.

 

[fgwrich]

An email I have in front of me.

Good to have a (potentially) concrete date at last, thank you!

 

[Snow1964]

Should be a press release for it on Monday

Reading Green Park press release confirming 27th May

Reading Green Park station opening date confirmed | GWR News

Becoming the first new station in Reading in over 100 years, Reading Green Park Station is set to open on Saturday 27 May 2023.

news.gwr.com

There are couple of links with videos

The 150m platforms are sufficient for 6car 165s (do any actually operate on this line ?), but too short for excursion / footex trains to nearby stadium. Not quite sure how a length of exactly 150m was decided.

 

[mangyiscute]

The 150m platforms are sufficient for 6car 165s (do any actually operate on this line ?), but too short for excursion / footex trains to nearby stadium. Not quite sure how a length of exactly 150m was decided.

I've never seen anything more than a 3 car

Also worth noting the times that are up on RTT - they have the 00:23 stopping at Reading Green Park on the 27th May but logic would suggest that since this is part of the Friday service, you would expect the first train to be the 05:50 ex-Reading as the first train of the morning.

 

[LUYMun]

Quick question, would the tickets that are labelled "Reading (Any)" include validity at Reading Green Park?

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Quick question, would the tickets that are labelled "Reading (Any)" include validity at Reading Green Park?

You'd hope so, if not then the tickets should be renamed "Reading or Reading West"

 

[pokemonsuper9]

You'd hope so, if not then the tickets should be renamed "Reading or Reading West"

Looks like it already has been (GWR website)

 

[swt_passenger]

You'd hope so, if not then the tickets should be renamed "Reading or Reading West"

They have already been renamed to “Reading or Reading West”, hopefully someone will know the date it happened. It was being discussed in March, was thought to have been done at about the time contactless was extended to Reading.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

View attachment 135133
Looks like it already has been (GWR website)

They have already been renamed to “Reading or Reading West”, hopefully someone will know the date it happened.

Ahh, good to know my suggestion aligned with what has been done. Means I can't be as off my nut as I thought

 

[mangyiscute]

Tickets have been "Reading or Reading West" for as long as I can remember, and I've been buying tickets from Reading for many years

 

[fgwrich]

I've never seen anything more than a 3 car

Also worth noting the times that are up on RTT - they have the 00:23 stopping at Reading Green Park on the 27th May but logic would suggest that since this is part of the Friday service, you would expect the first train to be the 05:50 ex-Reading as the first train of the morning.

We have had, during the Reading rebuilds, 5 car Turbos on the branch but nothing longer than 3 car for some time - @FGW_DID or @Clarence Yard may recall when?

 

[JN114]

We have had, during the Reading rebuilds, 5 car Turbos on the branch but nothing longer than 3 car for some time - @FGW_DID or @Clarence Yard may recall when?

Never 5 - it doesn’t fit in the bay at Basing; despite what the sectional appendix might suggest we have the pics showing it doesn’t fit from last time it was tried!

We’ve done 4 during the Waterloo blockade back in 2017(?) - but typically we work to 3 max as longer becomes an issue at intermediates.

 

[stuving]

Tickets have been "Reading or Reading West" for as long as I can remember, and I've been buying tickets from Reading for many years

Tickets bought for Reading as a destination were printed "Reading stations" up to December 2015, and from then it's been "Reading or Reading West".

 

[fgwrich]

Never 5 - it doesn’t fit in the bay at Basing; despite what the sectional appendix might suggest we have the pics showing it doesn’t fit from last time it was tried!

We’ve done 4 during the Waterloo blockade back in 2017(?) - but typically we work to 3 max as longer becomes an issue at intermediates.

Cheers! I thought 5 had been tried at one point, using Platform 4 instead of 5. I'd forgotten about the 2+2s though that did use the bay. May be mixing it up with all those Henley shuttles though (horrible times working the afternoon and evening shifts on those!)

 

[Snow1964]

Never 5 - it doesn’t fit in the bay at Basing; despite what the sectional appendix might suggest we have the pics showing it doesn’t fit from last time it was tried!

We’ve done 4 during the Waterloo blockade back in 2017(?) - but typically we work to 3 max as longer becomes an issue at intermediates.

So really the 150m platforms are pointlessly long for time being, as nothing longer than 70m is likely to call for foreseeable period.

Didn't the bay platform at Basingstoke use to be longer, or am I mixing it up with the line that used to snake around the back of platform 4. But I guess unless Bramley and Mortimer are also lengthened then longer trains formed of non gangwayed units always going to be inconvenient operationally.

 

[fandroid]

Didn't the bay platform at Basingstoke use to be longer, or am I mixing it up with the line that used to snake around the back of platform 4. But I guess unless Bradley and Mortimer are also lengthened then longer trains formed of non gangwayed units always going to be inconvenient operationally.

The bay platform at Basingstoke, platform 5, did used to be longer. There was a sad imitation of a buffer stop there right at the end of the rails. It did mean though that when it rained hard there was at least one door of a dmu that was accessible in the dry from under the canopy. After the major resignalling, proper friction buffers were installed which were several metres closer to Reading than the originals. The result is that everyone gets wet now!

 

[zero]

Is it now possible to walk to the station from Reading Gate Retail Park (and by extension the rest of Reading/the rest of GB)?

The latest image from Google Street View has the road (Flagstaff Road) closed off as things were still under construction when the Google car visited.

 

[crablab]

Is it now possible to walk to the station from Reading Gate Retail Park (and by extension the rest of Reading/the rest of GB)?

Yes. There are (occupied) new build flats and a Tesco Metro directly adjacent to the entrance.
There was a lot of low fencing around the car park etc. I don't know if that has been removed.

 

[73128]

Tickets have been "Reading or Reading West" for as long as I can remember, and I've been buying tickets from Reading for many years

I gather that Reading Stations (ie RDG or RDW) has or shortly will be been abolished and tickets will be to one station only. Certainly my ticket to BSK today was marked from Reading (only), although others recently have said Reading or Reading West to....