Reading–Taunton line old Bristol and Exeter Railway. The Taunton and Bridgwater Canal runs alongside the railway. The line passes the site of Creech St Michael railway station and the junction of the former Chard Branch Line. Passenger services on the route are operated by Great Western Railway (GWR). These are principally Class 802s from London Paddington to Plymouth, or . There is also an overnight "Night Riviera" sleeper service. Some other services between these places are routed between Reading and Taunton along the Great Western Main Line to Bristol, and then on to the Bristol to Taunton Line, thereby missing this Reading
Franklin B. Gowen president, Charles E. Smith, so that when Smith took a needed ocean voyage for his health in mid-1869, 33-year-old Gowen was put in charge upon Smith's recommendation to the Board of Managers. When Smith was unable to return for the next board election in January 1870, Gowen was elected president in his own right, a position he would occupy for more than a decade. The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad was a regional carrier only, not a trunk line with its own through connections to Pittsburgh, Chicago and beyond, like the Pennsylvania, the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) or the Erie railroads.