The Anonymous Widower

Reading Green Park Station – 27th May 2023

Reading Green Park station opened today, so I went and took these pictures.

Note.

1. It is a high-specification station with two platforms, toilets and full step-free access using a bridge and lifts.
2. I was told, that the station can handle six-car trains.
3. There is no coffee kiosk in the station, but there is a Tesco Express outside.
4. Trains run between Reading and Basingstoke, at a frequency of two trains per hour (tph).
5. The Reading and Basingstoke Line is partially-electrified.
6. As I’ve seen before, there was a Chinese guy taking pictures of the station.
7. At present there are only 54 parking spaces, but Wikipedia indicates this could be increased.

This Google Map shows the station under construction.

The map shows the station has room for expansion, which in a thriving town like Reading could be important.

I have a few thoughts.

Rolling Stock

The route is not unique, but it is unelectrified, but has 1.8 miles of high quality electrification at the Northern end.

This equates to a route, where 11.7 % is electrified.

Trains normally terminate at Reading in the fully-electrified Platform 2, which is shown in this picture.

In a typical round trip, a train can spend up to 26 mins under the wires between passing Southcote junction going North and passing it going South.

This time should be more than enough to fully-charge a battery-electric train.

Consider.

• Modern battery-electric trains have a range in excess of sixty miles.
• Network Rail must have known that from before 2015, when they ran the Class 379 IPEMU trial on the Mayflower Line, which I wrote about in Is The Battery Electric Multiple Unit (BEMU) A Big Innovation In Train Design?.
• I was told, by the onboard text engineer, that the Class 379 IPEMU train had a range of sixty miles on the batteries.
• In Is It Architecture,Engineering Or Art? I describe my first visit to the superbly rebuilt Reading Station. This was in 2013 and there is no sign of any electrification.

So was the electrification scheme at Reading designed knowing the results of the trials in Essex, which showed that battery-electric trains did more than work and were a serious proposition?

A sixty mile range would mean a battery-electric train could handle, these routes from Reading.

• Southcote junction and Basingstoke and then back to the electrification at Southcote junction, which would be 27.2 miles.
• Newbury and Westbury, which is 42.5 miles.
• Didcot Parkway and Oxford and then back to the electrification at Didcot Parkway, which would be 21.0 miles.

If four-car Class 321 Renatus, Class 379 or Class 387 trains were to be converted, I doubt there would be many modifications needed to stations and track.

The Bridge

The bridge has everything anybody would want with two lifts, stairs and lots of glass for good views.

But what puzzles me about Network Rail’s bridges is that a few years ago, they held a competition with RIBA to design a bridge.

This stylish, affordable and easy-to-install footbridge was the winner.

I wonder why not one has been built!

Ticketing

I feel there could be a minor problem with the ticketing.

For my trip today, I used my Freedom Pass on the Elizabeth Line as far as Reading, where I bought a return to Basingstoke, as I wanted to photograph something at that station.

In common with many stations, I had to exit from Reading station to buy my ticket from a machine.

As Reading has that superb bridge with lots of space and many changes at Reading will involve crossing the bridge, would it not be possible to put a ticket machine on the bridge?

I have travelled extensively on German trains and they place lots of ticket machines on the platforms, which I have used extensively, as their English is better than my German, which I have to use in a ticket office.

 

 

May 27, 2023 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Class 321 Renatus, Class 379 Train, Class 387 Train, Elizabeth Line, Freedom Pass, Great Western Railway, IPEMU, Mayflower Line, New Stations, Reading Green Park Station