j.p.harris@talk21.com wrote:

>On 1 Jul, 12:09, Tony Polson  wrote:
>> Steve  wrote:
>> >Not that I'd condone such things of course, but as a theoretical
>> >exercise anyone wanting to do this could purchase an advance ticket to
>> >a destination via Reading West (e.g. Newbury or Pewsey) if available,
>> >alight at the unmanned Reading West and walk from there to his final
>> >destination - it's only a few minutes' walk to Reading station and
>> >depending on the eventual destination the extra distance may be small
>> >or even negative. Not the greatest part of town, but feels safe enough
>> >in daylight (and anyway this is only a theoretical exercise, and no-
>> >one ever got hurt in a theoretical mugging...).
>>
>> Roughly how many minutes' walk do you think it is from Reading West
>> station to Reading station?
>>
>> (I ask as a former resident of Reading)
>
>20 - 30 minutes


Thanks, but I was asking Steve.  That certainly isn't the "only a few
minutes" that Steve claimed.  It takes almost as long to walk from
Reading West station to Reading station as it does to travel by HST
from Paddington to Reading.

Steve  wrote:

>On 1 Jul, 13:24, Tony Polson  wrote:
>> j.p.har...@talk21.com wrote:
>> >On 1 Jul, 12:09, Tony Polson  wrote:
>>
>> >> Roughly how many minutes' walk do you think it is from Reading West
>> >> station to Reading station?
>>
>> >> (I ask as a former resident of Reading)
>>
>> >20 - 30 minutes
>>
>> Thanks, but I was asking Steve.  That certainly isn't the "only a few
>> minutes" that Steve claimed.
>
>I seem to recall having walked it in about 15 minutes - and Google
>Maps gives the distance as exactly a mile, which would be 15 minutes
>at my walking pace. I accept that "only a few" perhaps conveys a
>suggestion of more like five or ten minutes.
>
>
>> It takes almost as long to walk from
>> Reading West station to Reading station as it does to travel by HST
>> from Paddington to Reading
>
>Obviously it depends on your walking speed, but the fastest Paddington-
>Reading services do it in 25 minutes - so significantly longer than
>the walk, for me.


From the down platform at Reading West to Platform 4 at Reading used
to take me between 20 and 25 minutes when I was young and fit.

The HST from Paddington to Reading took less than 25 minutes, so about
the same time as the walk.  That was in 1978/79.