Cool... where did you get that info from?  The link I have...

http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=3501

...doesn't have any detail.  Do you know if these tickets will be usable on services to London (I guess not, but it'd be handy)...?

OK, point taken...

I'm personally more interested in what compensation (as mentioned in that linked pdf) is going to be available to anyone with a season ticket...

The weird thing is that the last train (00:20 I think) south from Oxford on weekday nights stops at both stations... and no-one ever gets on/ off.  I guess the line's pretty clear late at night so the congestion issues don't exist, but it seems a bit odd!

Am I missing something or is it a heck of a lot easier just to use nationailrail.co.uk (from where it's been possible to look up the replacement bus times for at least a month)...?

Apologies if this is a daft question, but everyone seems to hate turbo trains... why?  OK, they're smaller so are more prone to overcrowding but why is their size an issue on fairly lightly loaded runs?

The 18:47 from Charlbury to Reading (and then Paddington) was recently changed to a turbo and it now almost always arrives at Reading by 19:25 - when it was a HST^▸ (High Speed Train), it hardly ever arrived less than 3 or 4 minutes late.  It also arrives at Oxford (timetabled at 19:01) and gets going again within about 90 seconds while the HST used to be there for 3 or 4 minutes whilst people put bikes on, left doors hanging open etc... so I guess I'm favour of the turbos!

For anyone who's not aware, it's now possible to check the times of the replacement buses (at least for the early phase of this summer's closures) by checking on nationalrail.co.uk...

Devon_Metro, I mean from Oxford to Hanborough in the morning and then back from Hanborough to Oxford in the evening.

Will, thanks for that - must have missed your original post.  I've seen mention once or twice of the replacement buses starting/ terminating at Hanborough, which as you say could be tricky if that turns out to be the plan...

I sometimes ride the 06:53 from Oxford into Charlbury in the morning, go to the Co-op and then get the 07:48 stopper back to Hanborough... and the fact is that more often than not, it doesn't pick up any passengers at either stop.  In particular, Combe station appears to be in the middle of nowhere... you don't seem to be able to even see the village...?  And then, it's only a two minute ride from Combe to Hanborough...!

The thing is, if these were closed, the 07:48 from Charlbury towards Oxford would be off the single line earlier, which hopefully would allow a stop at Hanborough (where several hundred people work on two business parks) on the 08:00(ish) from Oxford to Worcester as it could then get onto the single line earlier.

Surely the main objective isn't to keep every station open, but to look at how best to maximise use of the railways...?

Also, does anyone know if the rail replacement bus service timetable is out yet?

I heard a few rumbles that there was going to be a shuttle to and from Hanborough and all the replacement buses would start/ terminate there but not sure if there's any truth in this...

Going back to the topic discussed a few pages back, is it fair to say that Combe and Finstock stations are completely pointless and are only still open for political reasons? 

If you lived in either, surely you'd just drive to Hanborough/ Charlbury and park there to give yourself some flexibility in terms of what time you can come back...?

Or alternatively, shift it onto the single line just after 08:45, giving Oxford to Hanborough commuters a stop at about 08:55 (rather than the current morning choice of 07:03 and 09:31) and then run it onto Moreton from there...

Out of curiosity, do you ever get a significant no. of people getting on/ off at Shipton or Ascott?  There's hardly ever more than 1 or 2 at Finstock or Combe and often none at all...

Hmm... my understanding was as follows:

The first stretch where redoubling will be complete will be between Charlbury (or thereabouts) and Moreton and once this is complete, extra trains will be allowed to stop at Hanborough that currently go through non-stop (such as the 08:00-ish departure from Oxford) - but no extra trains will be introduced.

Then when the whole job is complete, an hourly service will run in each direction.

Surely when the job is complete, there won't still be 2 hour gaps between services...?

There are plenty more than 5 people that would use a service arriving at Hanborough from Oxford... before the 08:58 arrival was scrapped in favour of the 09:31, around 20 people used to arrive daily.  I've not used the 09:31 much but on the couple of occasions I have, no more than 4 or 5 people got off at Hanborough.  Whose boss is prepared to accept them arriving at nearly quarter to ten... and from I've heard, the 09:31 has a reputation for being late more often than not(!)

The fact that a lot of the stations are served by the Railbus (which doesn't serve Hanborough) makes the huge gap in service all the more frustrating...

The whole situation with morning timings from Oxford to Hanborough is just plain daft.

What they obviously need to do is to get the Cotswold line train that leaves Oxford around 08:00 onto the single line earlier, which would obviously involve getting the train that stops off at every single station off the single line earlier.

Why can't they just delete a few stops from this service and get it off the line.  Does Hanborough really need a train into Oxford at 07:34 and another one at 08:01?  Why can't they just send the second of these through Hanborough non-stop and get the northbound train onto the line earlier?

Alternatively, what is the point of Combe and Finstock stations?  I often ride the 06:53 from Oxford as far as Charlbury, go to the Co-op and then get the 07:48 (I think) back to Hanborough - more often than not, no-one gets on at either station (and it's never once been more than a total of three people at both stations combined) - so in all honesty, what's the point in having them?  There are a lot more than 3 people who want to go from Oxford to Hanborough at that time in the morning...!

Alternatively, maybe they could just bring the whole service forward by 5 minutes or so (although I guess this may well be impossible due to the single track sections)... but it's really hard to believe they honestly can't do better than a 2 and a half hour gap.

Rant over...