Reading Green Park Station is Now Open
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 พ.ค. 2023
- There's a brand new station open on the National Rail network. Welcome to Reading Green Park! Which takes the station count up to a total of 2,575. So I met up with Dan at Reading to take a ride on the branch line down to Basingstoke to see the new station and have a look around the local area ...
The T-Shirt and more Merch are available from : dztz.co.uk/
Jen's video on the first train on opening day : • Riding the FIRST train...
![[ไฮไลต์] แบดมินตันหญิง ไท่ ซือ หยิง vs เมย์ รัชนก อินทนนท์ รอบแบ่งกลุ่ม | โอลิมปิก 2024](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LUCG0H5qkpQ/mqdefault.jpg)
So what's it to be ... Gwurbo, or Churbo? You must decide!!
GWRbo is better geoff
Definatly Gwurbo!
@@Emily_20095 definitely GWRbo
@@steve.b.23yes I agree with GWRbo
GWURBO definitely
In the sunny 2020 lockdown I cycled into Green Park so many times (what a nice space) and have seen the blocked off construction site of the newest bit including the station. So glad to finally have a new one in my local area. Reading I think has some of the UK’s most convenient public transport for a town of its size.
I was involved with the initial stages of the Green Park development and there was always land reserved for a new station. I retired 13 years ago so it is great to see it finally built. They never built the link road from green park to kings heath meadow.
comical that its taken so long. typical public sector. In that same, several private sector telecoms companies have built and operated 4 generations of mobile network (2G/3G/4G/5G). No wonder we waste so much money in the public sector (too much faffing about especially in meetings, red tape, laziness). 23 years to plan/design/build just ONE station is not an achievement. Should be an inquiry to undesrtand why its taken so long and why so much money has been wasted.
The line from Reading to Basingstoke is one of my favourites for a few reasons. 1: it's such a handy connection between two major routes (GW & SW), 2: It's a very pretty line with great views particularly after leaving Reading and travelling between Reading Green Park and Basingstoke, 3: Mortimer and Bramley are very pretty stations and Mortimer has grade 2 listed buildings and 4: the countryside walks around Mortimer and Bramley are great and worth doing.
Bramley has an incredible bakery right next to the station too. Love it when I am working in the Bramley area
@@dielangenase certainly has! 👍
@@dielangenase if you arrive late on Thursdays, you can have a great fish and chips at Bramley station, although must say it is not the cheapest!
I grew up in Bramley in the days you could get the Thumper trains and on Sundays trains all the way to Portsmouth Harbour.
I think people who live in Reading will continue to take the bus to the stadium, because there's loads of different football bus routes and there is likely one that goes near your house.
People arriving from outside of Reading by train, eg away fans, will probably find it more convenient to change trains at Reading.
But to answer your question, the bus takes about 15 minutes from the station to the stadium, depending on traffic, and traffic can be very busy on match days. The train takes 7 minutes + walking time at the other end.
Interesting film continuity! Dan gets in lift, Geoff starts walking down stairs. Dan reaches bottom of stairs, Geoff gets out of lift.
Have you joined the Magic Circle yet, Geoff?
Should Lea Bridge Station Line transfer to Overground❓
“None…because it’s a bank holiday.” ENDED ME 😂
As someone who used to work in Green Park, Reading this is such a long awaited well needed station. Glad it has finally come and also with housing with it.
"None cos its a bank holiday" Exactly what I was muttering to myself just before Dan said it 😂
Edit: So glad you called the stadium the Mad Stad not "The select car leasing stadium".
When Dan took of his sung;lasses I was half expecting him to have a smaller pair of sunglasses on underneath like Rex Kramer in Airplane lol
Yep!
One of my favourite films. Boy did I pick the wrong week to appear in a TH-cam video!
As a Reading fan, I am going to continue with the bus - sometimes I walk to the main station and sometimes I get a train from Oxford, but what I've worked out is that for a 3pm kick off, you'd have to get the 14:07 train from Reading, whereas on the bus you can usually join the queue between 14:20 and 14:30 to get to the game about 15 mins before it starts - plus, on the way back, you'd have to wait about 25 mins for the train once reaching the station since it isn't very well timed. It'll be most useful for any Reading fans who live to the south, from the Basingstoke area.
Seems to be the way of the world for new stations by stadia. Same at the CBS Arena in Cov...except we only get 1 train an hour on a Saturday and it's 2 carriages. Even the one after 6pm is like Tokyo rush hour.
As a German football fan I am horrified by the thought of only arriving at the stadium 15 mins before kick off.
@@turtlewhohatescabbage1157 We have better pubs in England 😝
@@robblissism yeah we have our beers on the way to the stadium on the busses and trains. I won't get into the discussion if your pubs or our "Kneipe" is the better ones tho. :D Both are good enough to destroy a man's liver!
@@turtlewhohatescabbage1157 I personally don't drink beer, so there's not as much point in me being there early for that
Coming from Southampton, I used this station for football on Saturday, Women’s Super League, Reading (being relegated) vs. Chelsea (winning title). They displayed posters saying that a queueing system may be necessary due to the event. They didn’t need to bother as the attendance for Women’s football is lower and I suspect many didn’t know it had opened. I certainly saw more train fans than football fans. It’ll be interesting to see how well it copes next season, in League One!
I'm loving all the new stations we're getting now
I'm a local, and we live in Reading town centre. My partner is type 2 diabetic, and he has to attend his eye tests at Green park. I'm very happy this station now exists.
I'm also type 2 diabetic and I, too, had a DES in Green Park
Fascinating as always - keep on filming, guys. Much appreciated. Mike
The use of Connecticut, Maine etc street/road as a naming convention is surely a marketing ploy to give a new property development a bit of character. Just think of the tube stations and the names that they were given because no name previously existed. ❤
It's not uncommon to name streets on a new estate to a theme. The estate built onto the edge of my little East Midlands commuter town is known as Compton Acres and the road names are largely based on place names in the South West. This lead to some correspondence between my local council and a Somerset based second cousin when, while on a visit, she noticed that they'd named a road Blanford instead of Blandford. It's nothing new, my own little enclave built either side of WW2 is known as the Wolds Estate and has roads named after towns in the Leicestershire Wolds.
@@johnd6487 I'm
In London there exists the White City estate. It has various roads named after areas of the commonwealth i.e. Bloemfontein Rd, South Africa Rd, Canada Way, India Way, Australia Rd etc. Why the council chose the theme of the I know not.
The reason why it is called the White City estate is due to the fact that in the 1890s there was an exhibition built of white marble hence the name
This something of a tradition in Reading. There is an estate to the north of Reading wih entirely Welsh street names (although badly spelt).
Someone at GWR send Geoff a gift bag for such a positive video telling people to use THIS station of Reading Green Park
The house remind me of the Moomin house in Finland, and the more I see of the station is most definitely a mix of mid 80s architecture and modernist colour schemes
I visited the stadium as an away fan a few years ago. The bus service was incredibly well put together. There were buses parked to all parts of Reading. There was a line of buses going to the main station. Once everyone was on they left in a line headed by a police escort. Arriving really quickly.
Dan's shirt is fantastic!!
As a Reading local, the bus from Reading (central) station to the Madejski Stadium will probably continue to be quicker - mainly because Reading are relegated to League 1 and correspondingly the crowds will be smaller. That said, even in the same league, the bus would probably have been quicker *to* the stadium during pre-match, but *after* the match when you have thousands of people all trying to leave within a few minutes of each other, the train would probably be quicker. I've waited 20-30 minutes just to get on buses after matches, so the train is probably quicker for leaving after a match - especially if you're travelling onwards outside Reading.
I'm a local to Reading! I work at Green Park and it's so funny to see my favourite TH-camr in my home town! Nice work Geoff!
In Exeter you can also travel through three consecutive stations starting with the same word - Exeter Central, St David's, St Thomas
Just came here to say the same thing. Paignton to Exmouth line, also GWR.
Watford High Street, Junction and North (though you would have to change).
Pretty sure there must be a few examples just on the Tube - for example, the Claphams on the Northern Line.
If you're off to football, it's so much easier to use Green Park if you're coming from Basingstoke direction. If you're not, then it's probably better to use the bus on match days. I'm a Basingstoke based RFC season ticket holder, so it's Green Park for me next season.
It's nice to see how the area around the new station has expanded since 2009. I think this will definitely be a benefit to people going to the stadium
I’m going to be that guy unfortunately, you can travel through Ryde Pier Head, Ryde Esplanade and Ryde St Johns Road consecutively! Only joking, love the content!
No that’s a good shout, of course! Thank you!!
@@geofftech2 don't forget Exeter also Geoff St Davids,St Thomas, Central and St James's park
@@geofftech2: What about three consecutive stations with the last word 'PARK'? Raynes Park, Motspur Park, and Worcester Park. 😁
Big up the IOW!
You also have Clapham North|Common|South on the Northern Line.
@@DevonBadman Sick of living here…
A great video Geoff i really enjoyed it so much nice to see brand new station and what a surprise all the street names near by are USA. Those houses do look very American indeed.
Living in Reading myself, I visited the station right when I saw this video. You are my favorite TH-camr btw
Great video Geoff. Was there myself on late Saturday morning & felt like a great day out. I too got a badge.
And I was just watching this series an hour ago. Nice to see Reading has a new train station, even if I can't see it.
The housing in the American section of Green Park looks much closer to American architecture than the standard British pebble-dashed semi-detached. There's something a bit martimey about the architecture, as well -- those balconies with the gleaming white railings are something you'd see more on a row of houses in a beach town than an inland suburb like Reading. Although it's entirely possible, given that this is often the case when you take the average of "American" and "British", that it looks quite Canadian as well.
Thank you for the sunglasses-over-glasses tip!
Amazing video as always Geoff! I am keeping an eye opening for the newest station near me - Marsh Barton in Exeter - to visit when it opens. If you happen to be visiting Devon to see it open, would love to show you the riverside walk that links Marsh Barton to St Thomas station. Lovely section of line!
It’s Great to see the New Reading Green Park Now open.
As someone who lives at one of the intermediate stations on this line, I can atest to GWRs "solution" to late running trains is to run nonstop to Basingstoke.
On weekdays they have an extra third unit paid for by Reading Borough Council, which means longer turnarounds off peak and extra services at peak.
Geoff, thanks for sharing this vid a few days ahead of my own first visit to Reading Green Park. The station looks perfectly fine for that location and is a neat design with good facilities. I would say, though, that the forecourt bus stops are devoid of any form of shelter (bar the station entrance) which, in inclement weather or indeed on scorching summer days, may be uncomfortable and even unhealthy for waiting passengers.
One point not mentioned, at 12.30 on your vid you can see the emergency exit pathway running the length of platform 2 (Reading bound platform on LHS of image) which, presumably, has been provided in case football crowds need to be evacuated - good idea.
Also the unit I took from Reading to Reading Green Park had not yet had the PIS updated and did not show the new station. On the return there was yet another crass announcement where the “on board traincrew” thanked everyone for travelling - presumably the “on board” bit is to distinguish between any gratitude shown by traincrew in the messroom or those who have not yet signed on duty…………..Geoff, there must be masses of material about announcements, posters, signs etc to make a lengthy vid!
You make a very good point about how the addition of a stop can bust a diagram, a point I think is often overlooked by those pressing for new stations or additional stops to be added to the WTT. I had a quick look at SX and SO timings and at the Basingstoke end there are generous turnround times whereas at Reading it is a little tighter - around 8-15 minutes; Sundays need a driver with running shoes as, typically, the time at Basingstoke is 3 minutes and Reading 5 minutes so there is some vulnerability there. Moreover, with the use of EMUs on the B&H there is not the option, for example, for a Reading arrival to form a Newbury departure and vice versa.
Hi Geoff, looking forward to seeing your Marsh Barton video. If it's a nice day take a walk to the Double Locks pub for refreshments a 10-15 min walk along the canal away from the city. Cross the bridge over the canal from the station. Def worth a visit. Managed to get a shot of a GWR train at the station but just passing through. Station announcements are working but only telling you to stand back from the edge. Great videos, carry on the good work.
brilliant Reading Green park looks amazing & ill be visiting the station in the next few weeks and in the week GWR uses 3 trains on the line back in the day they used to use 2 but they changed it as i think the turnaround was quite tight and with 3 trains they now have more turnaround time at Reading & Basingstoke
Nice addition to the line,my son lives in Bramley so I use it often when I'm in Basingstoke on a visit,👍
Omg! Another amazing video! Lmfao! You and Dan are hilarious! Thank you for sharing!
It’s great to see new stations opening, as Daniel says we need more. By the way, you still having ‘properly’ done my local station - Kenilworth, as it hadn’t opened when you did it on one snowy day a couple of years ago.
Hey Richard! Here’s where we did Kenilworh back in 2018, not the snow day but a day when we went back again!
th-cam.com/video/TiedVGK9H_8/w-d-xo.html
I kid you not, whenever I travel home from college, one of my trains is the Reading-Basingstoke shuttle and I've always wondered why RGP was never used as it seems like such a nice station. Now you're making me want to go home via trains just to see RGP lol
Geoff is correct - Green Park Village is an American "New England" style development, hence the street names being New England states, lakes, etc. Bit poncy, but I think it's good, completely different to other soulless new housing developments.
In terms of the time to get to the stadium, I think (but could be wrong) the intention is to have shuttle buses from the station so people don't have to walk the mile through Green Park.
I've been waiting for this station since I moved into Green Park Village in 2016, it's an absolute godsend.
Just as a side note. Catch the right TPE service out of Huddersfield and stop at Manchester Victoria, Manchester Oxford Road, Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Airport .... Can you beat that??
Are they all in succession or are there other twiddly bits in between?
The streets are named after New England states. New Hampshire and Maine are north of where I live and Connecticut is South. The houses are in the Victorian style also found in Canada, named after Queen Victoria who reigned during the period the houses were designed. Victorian houses range from simple cottages such as this to very, very fancy ornate mansions.
We have boring names here in New England such as Reading, Amesbury, Gloucester, Hastings, Portland, Berwick, Bangor, Worcester, Truro, Halifax, just to name a bunch.
Did I seriously miss the opportunity to meet you in person?? Damn! Still im glad you enjoyed the new Reading station as did myself! 👍
I was there on the Saturday, and where was @geoffmarshall....
GWURBO and Braisingsteak. Useful line this one especially when SWR has landslips near the Hants/Surrey border.
Hi Geoff, Thanet Parkway is due to Open on the 31st July 2023, I’m glad to say that the Network South East Stall that you met at Acton will be there maybe selling some special Thanet Parkway merch 👍
Great video, very green 🟢
Marsh Barton is next month.... no date at the moment but enjoyed the tour of Reading Green Park, Gwurbo, or Churbo I like the name of both being honest. Great video
surprisingly clean! ... that's good!
Missed it because I am in America but pleased to know they Geoff is there to show us.
Every time Geoff encounters a lift (2:25), the button-pressing becomes more and more vehement!
Great to see this happening. A few more trains per hour would be good, too...
as a local i would do football bus but i don't go to football normally. thanks for showing how far the station is to the stadium as it shows it is a bit of a trek to costco from the station.
Geoff you can do polls on your community section, as well as post written updates about anything you like, youTube has pretty robust interaction features between viewers and creators
re: cancelling trains, i don’t know for certain but i’m pretty sure heaps of the buses and trains in Brisbane (Australia) run late and cancel the next ones due to that same kind of cascading effect. I often got the impression that was the process when my transit just didn’t show up until the following time slot.
Great video! You had to be there early on Saturday to get the goody bags, I got there at about 11am and they had all gone by then. I also departed on 165113, a winning unit for me. That leaves me with just Two Class 165s I need to travel on to complete the class.
Bank Holiday comment was awesome
Quite impressed that there are decent station buildings, loos and platform canopies. Take note Transport for Wales!
That looks like a lovely new station
yes! I’m NOT the only guy in reading who calls it Basingrad! made my day.
Great video, loved the shirts!
Great videos keep it up 👍👍👍👍👍, from your number one fan
Geoff - firstly whilst the station officially opened on Saturday, the Mayor of Reading - Opened the station on Friday - perhaps he could not make Saturday (bit of a muppet). All the press have been doing the "for the football stadium" but no better to get a bus from the town centre. MadStad is now the SCL - changed last year. ( I park at work - we moved to our business to south Reading and yes the Stadium location was considered) - Still think Reading needs a Reading East Station (Thames Valley Business Park - they is a Park & Ride - on Elizabeth Line - would make sense)
There have been many studies on a station at Thames Valley Park. Sadly Network Rail won't allow it to be built, due to capacity concerns.
There is a Reading East, it’s called Earley!
Jokes aside, something halfway to Twyford at around TVBP might make sense, but it has excellent bus connections already.
Went there the other day, pretty good station, saw some voyagers, sprinters and the turbo that I arrived in.
Nice switch in the lifts.
As an American living in Reading a decade or so ago I would go to Costco when I was feeling homesick for the States. So maybe Costco inspired a doubling down on that with the steet names and townhouses...
With a little new track and signalling at Southcote Junction it would be possible to directly link Newbury and Basingstoke, both very big and prosperous towns. The route would be Newbury and stations to Theale, then Reading Green Park and stations to Basingstoke (and vice versa).
2,575!!! Wow! Im so excited to see this
Oh hey, that overbridge seems to be built basically the same as the one in Oxford. Except a bit narrower. And with modern materials.
The bus might be quicker from central Reading but if you are coming from outside Reading (I live in Purley on Thames to the west of Reading), the train will be cheaper. I intend to use the train whe I go to matches next season.
Great to see Reading Green Park finally opened after getting bogged down in an argument amongst the Berkshire councils over whether to put a station there, or further down as part of a new town south of the motorway at Grazely.
As far as I’m aware the “New England Inspired” houses at Green Park Village are just marketing - did seem a bit odd when they started building those, especially so isolated from the rest of Reading on the far side of the business park. Better now it has some shops, a school and the station.
I have the pink 2012 Ceremonies Volunteer card somewhere in my house :). I was a games maker, you see. It allowed free travel during the period of the games. It actually has a design on it, too if I recall, I 'll have to find it a take a picture.
I used to work at Green Park for a few years in one of the many the office buildings between the station and the stadium. I suspect a large majority of travelers using the station will be work commuters. I certainly would have used it rather than driving, which can be very busy most mornings/evenings around J11 of the M4 and the A33 into/out of Reading.
Dan’s shirt, I needed my sun glasses just to watch 😅
Thanks for mentioning my branch line. They normally get cancelled at DBR Station
Unused accessible loo but the alarm pull cord is still tied up- they should dangle all the way to the floor in case someone falls down and needs help!
Reading local here, we refer to Basingstoke as Blazingsmoke...
As a local, I prefer taking the F1 shuttle. It is £2 and takes your from reading main station straight to the bus park at the football stadium
Are you planning on revisiting these new stations to view the user figures? Great video content 👍
Looking forward to seeing you at Pineapple Road station Geoff 👍
0:43 I suppose it isn’t on the National Rail network, but you could already do it on the tube, specifically the Northern Line between Clapham North, Clapham Common and Clapham South.
Seems a genuinely useful station to open and will hopefully result in less car journeys in the long term.🤞
All for new connections and that, but this station opening has just made my commute £20 more expensive because I miss my connection at Reading so have to travel in peak hours 🥲
Still, glad to see it’s open after months of it looking very ready!
Nice to see you
6.13 That illustration feels like something out of my childhood.
New station! That’s really good.
Wow, that was 42 secondes of commercial before I can see trains, a new record for me. Looks like TH-cam is gearing up it's 'get (i.e. pay for) add-free YouYube" campaign :(
That said it was worth the wait, a particular bristling and bubling video from Mr. Marshall 👍👍
I was told on the Saturday, by the very helpful and friendly GWR staff, that they expect the station not only to be used by people working in the Green Park offices, but also by those living in 'Little USA' who wish to take the 7 minute ride to Reading Central and maybe onto Paddington or Waterloo, or the West
Not Reading Central - nowadays just plain Reading.
Used to be Reading General up to the early 60s/70s
Shame they haven’t electrified the line to Basingstoke - either 25kv AC overhead or 750v DC 3rd rail.
@@armstrongleworthy5420 Should Lea Bridge Station Line transfer to Overground❓
Another group of station with the same word three times is Liverpool Lime Street, Liverpool Central and Liverpool James Street on the Wirral Line
Interesting when you looked at the timetable, there was South Western Railway services non-stop from Reading to Basingstoke, only on Sunday's though?
Bone came through on Sunday when it was timetabled to. I think there was a lot of engineering work going on on SW metals are there were ZERIO freight trains or Cross Country services either.
@@DanLoudShirts that makes sense.
Well for once I beat you to a new station. I got there about 18:30 on Saturday, and I have to say all those staff you refer to were nowhere to be seen. The station building, with its expensive loos, ticket office and barrier line, was firmly locked up. Those gates that you thought were for event days were wide open, thus revealing their true purpose. I'm kind of surprised it was as open as that on a Sunday.
There has been some debate about the effect of opening a new station on reliability with such short turnrounds. When the station was originally planned, it was expected that the Reading to Basinggrad line would be electrified before the station opened, and that the improved acceleration of electric trains would compensate for the additional stop time, but that never happened and we are stuck with Gwerbos. It was noticeable when I was there on Saturday, the half-hourly service was being run with three trains, which I think is a recent change presumably to improve reliability. Perhaps they need to schedule two trains on a Sunday.
I would agree that the walk to the stadium is a long one, and I doubt many Reading people would use the train to get to the stadium area on a non-match day as the bus would be faster. But traffic around the stadium is quite bad on match days and the buses get busy and delayed, so the train may attract people then to avoid that. I think on the whole though, the station is really intended for traffic from the nearby new housing and to the offices, all of which are nearer than the stadium. You didn't really point it out, but between the station and the fairly low density 'New England' houses there is a whacking great development of high rise flats under construction.
Oh, and I don't think there is any historic US connection. I think it is just the developers have decided there is a market for people who want to pretend they are living in the 'States.
great to see a new station opening instead of closing good luck to reading green park station will you be doing a video on thanet's new station thanet parkway between ramsgate and minster opening on the 31st July
Don't forget, White Rose, between Leeds and Morley, is also due later this year, as well as the others you listed. And nearby Cottingley will become an abandoned station at the same time. It's all go here in sunny West Yorkshire
It's not confirmed yet if White Rose will be completed in 2023 I think. I've been watching it being built from our office window in the business park. There's platforms now but the station buildings don't exist, nor a way to get from ground level to the platforms. Going to be a lot of stairs I reckon, hope the lifts don't go out of action as much as the ones at Wakefield Westgate!
What I can't work out is how access is going to work. The business park is barrier controlled for vehicle entry so I assume that car parking is going to be on the other side of the line from the business park and shopping centre. But with pedestrian access to the platforms from both sides I think? I assume that pedestrian access to the business park won't be restricted so I wonder if we'll see lots of foot traffic through our car park of lost people trying to go shopping!
Headbolt Lane on Merseyrail looks ready for opening soon, too.
Pity about them station names. Reading, Righting and Rithmatic would have been better
New stations are brilliant but holy sh……smokes we need better architects. Wish the station matched the surrounding area including the lake and those gorgeous houses.
The greenwave 50 bus runs up to every 10 minutes and much closer to many parts of Green Park and Reading Town Centre, so will undoubtedly remain the best way to travel for most people.
The train might be convenient for those travelling from the Basingstoke direction who had to double back from Reading Station, or if timings to connecting rail lines happen to work.
The streets in the new housing development have a New England naming theme, with the streets not named after states (Rhode Island yet to be built?) named after places in New England.
0:40 Geoff you can do the go through a station with the same place name in Redcar, Redcar British Steel, Redcar East and Redcar West
I remember back in 2012 I went to Costco warehouse in green park Reading with my wife and our 1yr old daughter. We were stuck for 3hours in traffic inside Costco due a football match btw Reading FC and Arsenal just ended. I was thinking to myself, when are they going to build a train station here? Now I guess that would not happen again with this station working.