Great Western Coffee Shop

The DfT is proposing new categories of Minor Modification that can be used for two types of closure that would currently be required to follow the full closure process where there is limited effect on the provision of railway passenger services.

These two categories are :

- Station relocation.
- Reducing a multiple track railway that runs through a station to a minimum of a single track.

As I will be responding to this consultation as part of my CANBER role, I would appreciate your views. See link below.
http://www.dft.gov.uk/consultations/open/minormodificationsrailways/

Looking at the web site the criteria for station relocation ones are copied below:

a) The facilities at the new station are of a modern-day equivalent to, or higher specification   than those of the old station, including accessibility measures;
b) There will be an improved quantum of services from the new location;

The distance to travel to gain access to the new station for pedestrians is not significantly increased for the majority of people living within a radius of 800 metres of the old station;
The distance to travel to gain access to the new station for road users is not significantly increased for the majority of people living within a radius of 2 kilometres from the old station.
The old station will not be closed before the new station is ready to come into operational use.  For the avoidance of doubt, it would be acceptable that an overnight changeover between locations occurs.
The new station serves an area where housing has developed and would better serve that community without disbenefit to the community that the old station initially served.

These seem reasonable in general terms. However the first  provision that the facilites at the new staion are  "modern-day equivalent to, or higher specification   than those of the old station, including accessibility measures;" "Modern day equivalent to" could be a cop out for just a ticket machine and bus shelter.

The accessability criteria seem OK in principle but would depend on the individual geography of each site.

I think the idea to make the reduction of track through a station " a minor change" should be resisted in total whatever the criteria. Many of the current problems raised on this board concern places and lines where track has been removed thus reducing the capacity of the line. As the current trend seems to be to increase capacity then any provision which would make it easier to reduce capacity should be resisted.

An interesting point re station relocation concerns Chilterns proposed new station for Bicester shopping village on the Oxford Cambridge line for their proposed Oxford Marylebone service. It will be within 200 hundred yards of Bicester Townso they have three options build a new staion and keep both open so the train stops twice in 200 yards, build the new staion and close Bicester Town or build a new staion linked to Bicester Town so that the train stops once.