Dear Friends,
We’re still a long way from achieving our primary goal of achieving a direct link from the Thames Valley to Heathrow.
I have not yet had a reply to my letter to the transport minister that I shared with you last week, and we are still waiting for the government’s regional office to unlock funds that are badly needed to undertake a feasibility study into our proposal to extend the Heathrow Express from the airport to Slough.
At a modest cost, this extension, would give us the link we need.
The steps forward since my last entry are humble, but nonetheless welcome.
Perhaps the best news is that new rolling stock is coming to the Great Western main line. This will still take another six years at least for the programme to be completed, however. The line is also not to be electrified one of the only remaining main routes in the mainstream of Europe that still runs diesel trains.
There is also news that extra units may be tacked on to some of the existing main trains running between Reading and Paddington, but nothing has yet been confirmed.
News that the government has partly bowed to pressure and left open the possibility that CrossRail may be extended to Reading is pleasing.
Rail minister Tom Harris has announced the government is safeguarding additional land beside the track between Maidenhead and Reading for CrossRail should “there be a business case” for it. He has been careful not to say what the parameters are for this case.
There is real significance in the announcement though, because it shows that the government has recognised for the first time that to run this frequently stopping service along the Great Western main line will require extra tracks.
This is important because if CrossRail were to run on existing tracks, the present semi-fast services from Oxford and Newbury through Reading and Maidenhead would be badly hit, as there is limited capacity.
CrossRail still remains essentially a project for the benefit of East and Central London, it seems, with little benefit to the Thames Valley. For it to have real benefit, I believe it should be extended from Heathrow to Slough.
The services will not start for another decade, and we cannot afford to wait that long for direct services to Heathrow – even if CrossRail were to be re-routed to achieve this link.
As I have said many times before, we need the existing Heathrow Express and Heathrow Connect to be extended from their terminus at Terminal Five the short distance to Slough.
The one piece of really good news is that that both Reading and West Berkshire councils have now given planning permission for the new railway station to be built at GreenPark, near our headquarters and close to Junction 11 on the M4 and the Madjeski stadium.
This is the first privately-funded railway station to be built in the south of England for 50 years.
Best wishes
Shaun Whittaker
We’re still a long way from achieving our primary goal of achieving a direct link from the Thames Valley to Heathrow.
I have not yet had a reply to my letter to the transport minister that I shared with you last week, and we are still waiting for the government’s regional office to unlock funds that are badly needed to undertake a feasibility study into our proposal to extend the Heathrow Express from the airport to Slough.
At a modest cost, this extension, would give us the link we need.
The steps forward since my last entry are humble, but nonetheless welcome.
Perhaps the best news is that new rolling stock is coming to the Great Western main line. This will still take another six years at least for the programme to be completed, however. The line is also not to be electrified one of the only remaining main routes in the mainstream of Europe that still runs diesel trains.
There is also news that extra units may be tacked on to some of the existing main trains running between Reading and Paddington, but nothing has yet been confirmed.
News that the government has partly bowed to pressure and left open the possibility that CrossRail may be extended to Reading is pleasing.
Rail minister Tom Harris has announced the government is safeguarding additional land beside the track between Maidenhead and Reading for CrossRail should “there be a business case” for it. He has been careful not to say what the parameters are for this case.
There is real significance in the announcement though, because it shows that the government has recognised for the first time that to run this frequently stopping service along the Great Western main line will require extra tracks.
This is important because if CrossRail were to run on existing tracks, the present semi-fast services from Oxford and Newbury through Reading and Maidenhead would be badly hit, as there is limited capacity.
CrossRail still remains essentially a project for the benefit of East and Central London, it seems, with little benefit to the Thames Valley. For it to have real benefit, I believe it should be extended from Heathrow to Slough.
The services will not start for another decade, and we cannot afford to wait that long for direct services to Heathrow – even if CrossRail were to be re-routed to achieve this link.
As I have said many times before, we need the existing Heathrow Express and Heathrow Connect to be extended from their terminus at Terminal Five the short distance to Slough.
The one piece of really good news is that that both Reading and West Berkshire councils have now given planning permission for the new railway station to be built at GreenPark, near our headquarters and close to Junction 11 on the M4 and the Madjeski stadium.
This is the first privately-funded railway station to be built in the south of England for 50 years.
Best wishes
Shaun Whittaker
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