Reading has seen a massive investment in its railway infrastructure in recent years, with the station re-build, extra platforms, the flyover to the west, and the tunnel to the east. The next show in town is the electrification of the Great Western mainline. But closer inspection of the plans shows that Reading’s post-electric commuters could be in for something of a shock.
Continue reading “The electric shock coming down the line for Reading’s commuters”
Last week plans were submitted to the council for the redevelopment of the Madejski Stadium car park. I covered this topic when the idea was unveiled at a public exhibition in November. Now that the formal application has gone in, we can take a closer look at the detail. There will probably be two opposing camps, so I thought I’d present each side of the argument. Continue reading “Royal Elm Park – Two Sides to the Story”
Let’s be honest, the A329(M) is all a bit of a mess. But in Autumn of 2015, its long-running white paint-based tinkering from the Highways Agency was finally completed, and with it the road’s downgrading from ‘Motorway’ to ‘Rush-Hour Car Park with added Peril’. To understand fully how this sorry transformation has unfolded, over many years, we need to look back at the history of this unfortunate motorway. Continue reading “A329(M) – Reading’s broken road, and how to fix it?”
It took all my powers of self restraint not to entitle this post “Reading the future”, but that’s the gist – as 2016 gets underway, what might the year hold in store for the town? If a town could write itself some new year’s resolutions then I’d hope to see the following amongst them.
The Broad Street Mall was purchased by new owners in May 2015. Since then we’ve heard nothing of their plans for the site. That is until this month when a planning application has been submitted to the council. Sadly the limit of the ambition, at this stage at least, is to re-brand the signs on each of the entrances to the mall. So let’s take this opportunity to give the new owners some ideas on how they could bring vast improvements to this part of Reading, and potentially make some money along the way. Continue reading “FAO the Broad Street Mall’s new owners”
There’s a great deal of hype locally about Crossrail. Reading will act as a western terminus for the £15bn mega-project. But what will it provide for the people of Reading? Let’s take a look… Continue reading “Crossrail – the Reading perspective”
Yesterday I visited the public exhibition organised by Wokingham council for a new park and ride site to the east of Reading. Continue reading “Zeroing in on the Dreadnought – defunct inn to have Reading’s biggest pub car park”
“Pedestrian and Cycle bridge”. That seems to be the official name for Reading’s new Thames crossing. Yet despite the lack of foresight when it came to naming the new structure, the council and its planners deserve a little more credit for thinking longer term for Reading’s riverside.
Continue reading “The vanity bridge that’s well worth a look”
Reading-on-Thames 