Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what benefits, in terms of timekeeping for both passenger and freight trains, have accrued since the flyover at Reading was commissioned.

It is not possible to disaggregate the benefits of the Reading viaduct from those brought about by the overall Reading Station Area Redevelopment. Cumulatively, the components of the redevelopment have resulted in:

• a minimum of four additional train paths per hour in each direction
• five additional platforms
• 125% improvement on through line platform capacity
• 38% improvement in service performance

The construction of the Reading Viaduct to the west of Reading station formed one aspect of the wider £850m investment in the Reading Station Area Redevelopment. Other components of this project include the introduction of seven new platforms, signalling upgrades and track reconfiguration, as well as the construction of a new tunnel to the west of the station.

The primary purpose of the flyover was to allow the separation of passenger and freight services to help enable faster journey times; one of Network Rail’s objectives in Control Period 6 is to improve freight performance through better average speed of freight services.