Reading

Wow… train station is huge now!!! Still friendly staff and good pasty place and an m and s.
Plus a rail air which is excellent.

It’s a very busy station, but it’s huge and well laid out. The escalators work well and there are ample number of elevators too.
The size and neat uncluttered layout is such a different experience after the chaotic (Busy) national rail stations within London and the smaller stations as you leave the city.
Cabs are very easy to hail (There’s a taxi stand outside) and the high street is a short walk away.
The staff is extremely helpful and forthcoming with information.

This train station is horrible and the staff is worse.
They don’t allow you to buy cheap tickets with credit cards. So you ask the staff and they say, just go get cash from the ATM. So you do, but you only get £20 bills from the machine and you can’t buy low cost tickets with £20 bills for the same reason you can’t use the card… Ridiculous.
The staff doesn’t tell you you can just walk through and buy the ticket on the train until after you miss a few trains and are about to miss the last train.
Stupid system, dirty station, rude staff, avoid this station if you can.
Other than that, Reading itself is lovely and I love walking around over by the river! Hit up the Jurassic Mini Golf, and get some new threads at Topman in The Oracle shopping center!

Can I just say I hate this newly updated station. I hate it because as if my route from Brighton (cutting out London) to the West country isn’t enough of a ball-​ache (usually 3 changes), the platform used to be a straightforward walk a few yards up from my arriving one making it easy to catch my connections. Now, they’ve changed it all around and made it a mission away.
As I ran to make my connecting train I DID make it in time only to be told I couldn’t be allowed on. Wtf?!
What is the point in being such a jobsworth really? I had to wait outside it for a few minutes before it actually took off! I had plenty of time AND there was hardly anyone on it. Cheers mate.
As I plodded to the next platform having 20 minutes to wait for another train, I decided to get out my bagel I’d packed and share it with the now grizzly wee boy. Looked for somewhere to park our behinds and shock horror! There is NOWHERE to sit. Seriously Reading, are you that clever that you’ve gone to all this trouble to build a nice big station and you forget to put seats on the platforms? Fantastic.
Also when you step off the gatwick train (usually very busy) it’s difficult to see the information board as its in a awkward place and can get very crowded with people straining to see. Again blindingly shrewd.
Really it’s getting an extra star because trains run regularly through it and there are shops to grab refreshments.
It’s alright really I think my Unilocal induced hangover didn’t help…

Ein Tip wenn ihr in Reasing mi dem Zug fahrt. Die Tickets könnt ihr beruhigt am Automaten kaufen ihr müsst dann nur darauf achten, dass ihr auch die richtigen Tickets für die richtigen Wegstrecken in den Scanner schiebt. Auf dem Rückweg könnte es sonst Probleme geben ;) Ich kenn mich da aus !!
Ansonsten ist in Reading alles bestens ausgeschildert und nicht zu verfehlen ;)