Reading is one of the busiest stations outside of London. It is a major transport interchange at the junction of a number of busy lines such as the Great Western Main Line to London Paddington and lines to London Waterloo and Oxford, with an adjacent bus station too.
Reading has AC and DC electric services, on the latter is SWR 450 117
Information
Type:
National Rail (Great Western Main Line and others)
Station code:
RDG
Opened:
1840
Platforms:
15
The station was originally opened by the Great Western Railway in 1840 [1] and was the a terminus of the Great Western Main Line for a few months until the line was continued onto Bristol.
The station was renamed Reading General in 1949 to distinguish it from Reading Southern however the name reverted back to Reading when the other station closed and was merged into Reading General in the early 1970s.
The station has had a number of redevelopments over the years, the latest was finished in 2014, this added five new platforms, new footbridges and access routes and some track layout modifications including flyovers to try and alleviate the bottleneck the station had become by the 2000s.
Over twelve million people use Reading per annum on services (16 million pre Covid) operated by Great Western Railway, Cross Country and South Western Railway. Reading has also become the Western terminus of the Crossrail Elizabeth Line.
GWR 165 110 on one of the bay platforms, it will soon depart for Basingstoke
GWR 387 157 waits at Reading
GWR 802 109 arrives with an express
A Cross Country service arrives at Reading
GWR 166 202 prepares to head down the North Downs Line
[1] Vic Mitchell & Keith Smith, Reading to Guildford (Middleton Press, 1988) p. 2
