20th Century

The Great Western Railway comes to Reading

Great Western Branches

Railway Accidents

Southern Railway

Reading Station

Modern Railways

The twentieth century started with railways being the main form of transport. The Great Western was seen as old fashioned, but in the early 1900's started to modernize. It had new more powerful locomotives designed and shortened its routes. In 1906 the Berks and Hants line to Newbury was extended to become part of a through route to the south west. At the same time the GWR built a new line to Birmingham, which meant that trains to Birmingham no longer went through Reading.

The first world war put great pressure on railways with little maintenance taking place. After the war, in 1923, the many railway companies were grouped into four big ones. Only the Great Western remained almost as it had been, the two southern railways were joined with other railways in the south to become the Southern Railway. The Southern Railway's companies had already started to electrify some of their lines in London. By 1939 the Southern Electrified railway had reached Reading.

The second world war was even worse for the railways than the first. By the end of the war the state of the railways was very poor. This time the railways were reorganised into one nationalised company, British Rail. With all the railways under the control of one group, many lines were closed in the 1960's after a report by Doctor Beeching. None of Reading's railways were affected, but in 1965 the Southern Station was closed, with all the trains running into a new platform in the main station. At the same time steam trains were finally replaced by diesel trains.

From the 1950's the number of people with cars greatly increased. Less people travelled by trains. The opening of the M4 motorway meant that many trains were travelling from London to Bath at the same speed as cars. The on the GWR main line were speeded up in 1976 with the introduction of the Inter City 125's which could manage the journey to London in 22 minutes at a top speed of 125 mph. In the 1990's the railways again changed, with the name Great Western reappearing on the sides of the Inter City 125 cars.