THESE pictures of the new Reading Station look too good to be true - and maybe they are.

The Chronicle reported last week on the latest plans for the £850m station upgrade over the next few years, as envisioned by Reading Borough Council transport chiefs.

They admitted that not all of the funding is secured yet, but Network Rail has gone further and insisted it is focusing on the track works, including the separation of the north-south Basingstoke line from the Great Western line to boost speed and capacity on both.

Its spokesman Don Sharples said that although there is funding in place for a new northern and southern entrance and a footbridge, there is not yet any money secured for a southern concourse on the scale laid out by the council.

He said the major focus of the works was the changes to the track, layout and platforms, but on the southern station concourse he added: "We're fully supportive of the scheme the council has put forward and will continue working with them."

The project has won most of its funding from the Government, including all of the money for track works to massively increase capacity and get Reading ready for Crossrail, should its western terminus be extended from Maidenhead, plus a £4.3m boost this month for improvement to nearby bus and taxi stops.

But the high-level board running the project - including First Great Western and the Department for Transport alongside Network Rail and the council - has a nervous wait to hear whether the money for the main southern Station concourse on the scale hoped for will materialise.

Transport chief Pat Baxter said the station works on whatever scale would have to slot into Network Rail's plans, and that delays could mean the grand new concourse never happens as currently planned.

She added: "If we want to bring this scheme forward we will have to act fairly quickly - work begins in 2009 and finished in 2012, that can't be changed."

Borough transport leader Tony Page added that since annual station user numbers will double from 17m to 35m in the next few years, Reading must have a station able to cope.

He said: "We are planning for that doubling, not for the status quo. It's already hellishly congested."

For the draft timetable of building work and roadworks ahead of the station upgrade, visit: www.readingchronicle.co.uk/news/roundup/articles/2009/04/17/37735-all-change-for-station/