Reading–Basingstoke line Reading–Basingstoke line The Reading–Basingstoke line is a short railway link between the South Western Main Line and the Great Western Main Line, constructed by the Great Western Railway between 1846 and 1848. The line is served by Great Western Railway local services between Reading and Basingstoke, which stop at the intermediate stations Reading West, Mortimer and Bramley. The line is also an important through route for longer distance passenger and freight services: CrossCountry services from Bournemouth and Southampton to Birmingham and the North of England and freight trains between Southampton Docks and the Midlands use the line. The section of
Reading, Pennsylvania longest in the Pennsylvania Hillclimb Association series, which follows the same route the automaker used to test his cars. Reading played host to a stop on the PGA Tour, the Reading Open, in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The city's cultural institutions include the Reading Symphony Orchestra and its education project the Reading Symphony Youth Orchestra, the Reading Choral Society, , the GoggleWorks Art Gallery, the Reading Public Museum and the Historical Society of Berks County. Reading is the birthplace of graphic artist Jim Steranko, guitar virtuoso Richie Kotzen, novelist and poet John Updike, poet Wallace Stevens, and singer-songwriter