page_title: Reading West railway station
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Reading West railway station / History
caption_attribution_description: Pre Grouping railway junction around Bere Alston, Reading &amp; Wokingham
context_page_description: Reading West railway station serves West Reading, Berkshire, about 1 mile west from the town's main retail and commercial areas. The station is served by local services operated by Great Western Railway. It is 36 miles 75 chains down the line from London Paddington.
  To the north of the station the line crosses a railway bridge over the Oxford Road, followed by Oxford Road Junction, which is the southern apex of a triangle of tracks. The tracks to the west curve round to join the Great Western Main Line towards Bristol at Reading West Junction, and are largely used by freight trains between Southampton Docks and points to the north. The tracks to the east lead to Reading station and are mostly used by passenger services. To the south of the station the line enters a cutting, crossed by high level bridges carrying the Tilehurst Road and, further to the south, the Bath Road. Beyond the cutting is Southcote Junction, where the line to Basingstoke diverges from that to Newbury.
  The station has two platforms, which were linked by a footbridge until it was demolished as part of the electrification of the Reading to Newbury line.
context_section_description: The line through Reading West station opened on 21 December 1847, as part of the Great Western Railway backed Berks and Hants Railway's route from Reading to Newbury. On 1 November 1848, Berks and Hants Railway's second route to Basingstoke opened. The two lines merged at Southcote Junction, just south of the eventual station site, running together through that site to Reading station.
  Reading West station itself did not open until 1 July 1906, by which time the Berks and Hants Railway had been subsumed into the Great Western Railway. The station was originally intended to serve trains between the north of England and the south coast which could thus avoid a reversal at Reading.
caption: A 1909 Railway Clearing House Junction Diagram showing (left) railways in the area of Reading West (shown here as WEST STA.)
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