page_title: 21st-century modernisation of the Great Western main line
section_title: Reading
hierarchical_section_title: 21st-century modernisation of the Great Western main line / Station renovation and enhancements / Reading
caption_attribution_description: English: First Great Western's 43180 passes through the Windsor Line platforms at Clapham Junction. It is operating a London Waterloo to Penzance service, diverted from its usual route from London Paddington due to major engineering work at Reading.
context_page_description: Network Rail plans to spend £5 billion on modernising the Great Western main line, its South Wales branch and other associated lines. The modernisation plans were announced at separate times but their development time-scales overlap in the 2010s. The work includes electrification, resignalling, new rolling stock and station upgrades. According to Network Rail, the modernisation started in June 2010 and was due to end in 2017. As of December 2019, electrification was complete as far west as Cardiff Central, and also from Reading to Newbury.
  The project has been subject to repeated delays. In November 2016 the government announced that several major elements of the electrification programme would be indefinitely deferred because costs had tripled. The five sections that are delayed are:
  Oxford to Didcot Parkway
  Bristol Parkway to Bristol Temple Meads
  Thingley Junction, near Chippenham, to Bath Spa and Bristol Temple Meads
  Thames Valley branches to Henley and Windsor
  Swansea to Cardiff.
  Under the Intercity Express Programme, 21 electric Class 800 trains were ordered as replacements for the ageing InterCity 125 diesels.
context_section_description: On 10 September 2008, Network Rail unveiled a £400M regeneration and reconfiguration of Reading station and surrounding track, incorporating an overpass to the west of the station; with freight and passenger trains able to transit from the Reading to Taunton Line and Reading to Basingstoke Line to the 'slow' lines via an underpass beneath the 'fast' lines, replacing the conventional at-grade crossing of the 'fast' lines via points, with the aim of alleviating delays due to slow-moving freight service passing through the station. By 2014 the total cost had risen to more than £800M.
  As well as the reconfiguration of the track, the terminal platforms for services to/from London Waterloo will be altered and the Cow Lane bridge under the tracks has been made two-way and now includes a cycle path. There will be improvements that will provide capacity for at least four extra trains in each direction every hour.
  The station received:
  Five new platforms to ease overcrowding
  A new foot-bridge between platforms
  New escalators and lifts
  A new northern entrance for the station, to serve the north side of the town and Caversham, and provide a link through the station between Reading town centre and the Thames.
  These plans provide for the future Crossrail and possible Airtrack services at Reading station, building a railway that will be fit for at least the next thirty years. Also, the improvements will allow six new freight trains each day – this could take around 300 lorries a day off the roads.
  While much of the work was carried out in 2010, trains to Devon and Cornwall ran from London Waterloo instead of Paddington, using the South Western Main Line via Basingstoke then the West of England Main Line and Wessex Main Lines. Trains to Bristol, South Wales and Cheltenham were diverted via the Chiltern Main Line (from London to Banbury) where they reversed and returned via Oxford to Didcot Parkway, South Oxfordshire to re-adopt the Great Western main line.
  As of February 2015, the regeneration and modernisation of Reading Station is complete. The station now has 15 platforms, each serving their own specialist destination and purpose. The new platforms allow more frequent trains to run through Reading and allow more passengers to join longer trains. The entire Reading Redevelopment project will be completed by 2017.
caption: London to Penzance trains were diverted to run from London Waterloo in December 2010 while a new bridge was put into position at Reading. This allowed additional tracks to be laid on the north side of the station.
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 450D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image DateTime": "2010:12:30 15:42:38", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "2200", "Image Padding": "[]", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/100", "EXIF FNumber": "4", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Shutter Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "800", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2010:12:30 15:42:38", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2010:12:30 15:42:38", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "53/8", "EXIF ApertureValue": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "28", "EXIF SubSecTime": "03", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "03", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "03", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3088", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2056", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "1544000/439", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "257000/73", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "4168"}