Major delays expected at Reading station over Easter

Author: Sean McGrath - 26 March 2013

Train commuters going through Reading over the Easter period can expect significant delays as a ten day switchover to new station facilities takes place.

The switchover is scheduled to start on March 29 and if all goes well, will be completed by Sunday April 7. 

The total investment for the project is £895 million and includes a new viaduct to help rail congestion as well as a series of enhancements to the station design. Network Rail programme director, Bill Henry said that the switchover was the most ambitious part of the project to date and apologised for the disruption it would cause.

"If there was any other way that we could deliver the improvements we would do it. But passengers should understand that during the ten days of disruption to train services we plan to achieve as much as we could in 20 weekends of work," Henry said.

Should the authorities carry out the work within this time frame, they will have completed the project one year ahead of schedule.

The project is the single biggest commissioning of new track, signalling and infrastructure works at one time in the history of Network Rail, reports travel-news.co.uk.

Bbc.co.uk advised passengers to check with National Rail before travelling.