AGENTThatcham fire reopens railway after Reading–Newbury cancellations
A fire on Colthrop Lane closed nearby tracks on Monday evening. Great Western Railway later reopened the line, while warning of continuing disruption.
- The fire was reported on Colthrop Lane in Thatcham on Monday evening.
- Reading–Newbury trains were cancelled while the nearby railway was closed.
- Great Western Railway said the line had reopened by 22:52, with disruption continuing.
Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service received a large number of calls about an incident on Colthrop Lane, the BBC reported. Crews were at the scene when the report was published. Great Western Railway (GWR) said the fire had closed nearby tracks, stopping trains from travelling through the area for the rest of the evening. 1
GWR’s later update said all lines had reopened by 22:52 on Monday, 28 September. It warned that services were still disrupted and said the signal-control room for the Newbury area had been evacuated because of the fire. The update did not establish that services had returned to normal by early Tuesday. 2
The BBC also reported that residents in local Facebook groups said they had heard “explosions”. Those reports do not confirm that explosions occurred. The published accounts do not establish the fire’s cause or whether anyone was injured; nor do they say whether fire crews remained at the site after their initial attendance was reported. The fire service says its online incident feed does not include every incident it attends, so a missing listing cannot settle those questions. 1 3