Reading West railway station serves West Reading, Berkshire, about west from the town's main retail and commercial areas. The station is served by local services operated byGreat Western Railway. It is down the line from. 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 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. There is a ticket office on the up platform, which is open only in the morning, and canopies provide some shelter on each platform. There is separate pedestrian access to the northern end of both platforms from Oxford Road, together with access to the southern end of the down platform from Tilehurst Road.
History
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 to. On 1 November 1848, Berks and Hants Railway's second route to 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.
Services
The station is served by local services operated by Great Western Railway between Reading and Basingstoke or Newbury. During weekday daytime the station is served by two trains an hour on the Basingstoke route, plus one on the Newbury route. Trains are less frequent on Sundays and in the evenings. Trains take some 3 minutes to reach Reading, 20 minutes to reach Basingstoke, 25 minutes to reach Newbury and just over 30 minutes to reach London. Passenger services on Great Western Railway's route to the West Country via, on CrossCountry services from the North of England to and, and on some local services, pass through the station without stopping. South West Trains previously ran services from Reading to Basingstoke, which occasionally ran to Brighton.
Incidents
On 28 December 1965, the 08:30 passenger service from Reading General to derailed near the station. The 10-coach train was travelling at when it struck a broken rail, derailing at the fifth carriage. The train stayed upright, and the application of the locomotive's vacuum brakes saw the train stop in approximately. An investigation found that the rail had suffered a transverse fracture at the site of wheelburns. None of the passengers sustained serious injury.
