17 Feb 2023

MP Theresa May officially reopens additional Maidenhead station car park

Maidenhead MP Theresa May has welcomed the reintroduction of a car park providing more than 140 spaces at the town’s station.

Silco Drive car park was taken out of use six years ago to allow for the construction of a depot and sidings as part of the Elizabeth line project.

With those works complete and Elizabeth line services commencing in May last year, Network Rail has funded the £600,000 restoration of the car park.

It has been resurfaced and relined to bring 141 spaces back into use, along with CCTV and a Customer Information Screen showing real-time train information. Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) will also be introduced.

Silco Drive car park is a five to 10-minute walk from the station and will help to relieve pressure on the Shoppenhangers car park, which provides 171 spaces.

Mrs May said:

“I’m pleased to see the parking spaces in Silco Drive car park coming back into use. With the enhanced services of GWR and the Elizabeth line, Maidenhead is an increasingly important station. The spaces in Silco Drive car park will be a real boost for those who need to drive to the station.”

GWR Business Assurance and Strategy Director, Joe Graham, said:

“The return of this space as a car park at Maidenhead station is a real boost for customers now benefitting from more than six trains per hour to and from London.

“Shoppenhangers car park has traditionally been extremely well used and we hope these additional 141 spaces will be well received by station users.”

Network Rail Industry Programme Director, Bogdan Lupu, said:

“Following the £19bn investment in the Elizabeth line, which has proved to be a vital transport link into London since opening in 2022, passengers from Maidenhead now have more opportunities to travel to a number of destinations using the line, as well as with GWR.

“We’re pleased that passengers at the station will be able to use the car park once again, opening up rail travel for commuters in the area who drive to Maidenhead station to start their journeys.”

Contact Information

John Carter

Media and Communications Manager

Great Western Railway

0845 410 4444

John.Carter1@gwr.com

Notes to editors

Pictures: MP Theresa May cuts a ribbon to mark the reopening of the car park, watched by GWR's Joe Graham, left, and Network Rail's Bogdan Lupu

About GWR

First Greater Western Limited, trading as “Great Western Railway” (GWR), operates trains across the Great Western franchise area, which includes South Wales, the West Country, the Cotswolds, across southern England and into London. GWR provides high speed, commuter, regional and branch line train services, and before the covid-19 pandemic helped over 100 million passengers reach their destinations every year. GWR has been awarded a National Rail Contract to continue operating the Great Western network, which shall run up to 21 June 2025, with the potential for a further three years at the Secretary of State’s discretion. Find out more here: https://www.gwr.com/about-us 

About Network Rail

We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.

Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.