New Oxford - Bristol direct service, ongoing developments and discussion

[whole diary]

[John D]

Of course, Bristol to Milton Keynes with no changes would be easily possible as well.  One might say, the perfect use of an IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train)!

Or a 110mph EMU^▸ (Electric Multiple Unit) with batteries.

Anyone know what is happening to the surplus 350s (the 37 units 350 231-267) which are only 16 years old

[Chris from Nailsea]

I'm sure there is one - and a thread already to post it in?

Thanks, ChrisB - now done. 

[grahame]

15:18 Bristol Temple Meads to Oxford due 16:29
17:12 Oxford to Bristol Temple Meads due 18:23

17:12 Oxford to Bristol Temple Meads due 18:23 will be cancelled.
This is due to a shortage of train crew.

[Mark A]

Possible progress, with an hourly Bristol-Oxford service hoving in to view. Hopefully.

Mark

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cedlxqg7ex5o

[anthony215]

Possible progress, with an hourly Bristol-Oxford service hoving in to view. Hopefully.

Mark

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cedlxqg7ex5o

Long overdue I think it will prove quite popular especially if it ran beyond Oxford to Milton keynes

[ChrisB]

Why would Milton Keynes be a more attractive destination than Oxford?

[grahame]

Why would Milton Keynes be a more attractive destination than Oxford?

On its own, it wouldn't.  But if you add the people attracted to Milton Keynes to the people attracted to Oxford, you may get better mass transit which is combining all the flows along a flow and sharing costs between all the various bums on seats.

[IndustryInsider]

Why would Milton Keynes be a more attractive destination than Oxford?

On its own, it wouldn't.  But if you add the people attracted to Milton Keynes to the people attracted to Oxford, you may get better mass transit which is combining all the flows along a flow and sharing costs between all the various bums on seats.

Quite agree.  The more East-West rail becomes a true East-West service over time - Bristol<>Milton Keynes/Bedford/Cambridge and perhaps beyond to Norwich/Ipswich - the appeal grows and an ideal route for a 5-car IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train).  Not dissimilar to the Cardiff<>Portsmouth or Norwich<>Liverpool routes where relatively low numbers of people are travelling the whole route, but taken as a whole with people joining/alighting at various points en-route, it's difficult to not see it being extremely popular.

But for now I'll be very happy for a new hourly Bristol<>Oxford service.  With a presumed target journey time of 70-75 minutes, three IETs would be needed with sensible layovers at each end of the route.  Platform 5 at Oxford should be ready by then and IETs should be available by then with Class 175s taking over existing IET diagrams in the west.  Crew availablility remains a slightly thorny issue, but drivers wise some Oxford based crew are about to 'sign' as far as Swindon and that would be the logical depot, along with Bristol, to work it.

[Chris from Nailsea]

As this very welcome 'news' discussion develops, I've removed the link to last year's specific date in our calendar and expanded the heading of this topic - purely in the interests of clarity and ease of future reference.

CfN. 

[anthony215]

Why would Milton Keynes be a more attractive destination than Oxford?

People could travel there to connect with other services and destinations plus this service would allow people to avoid have to travel across London or even changing at Birmingham new street etc

[grahame]

Why would Milton Keynes be a more attractive destination than Oxford?

People could travel there to connect with other services and destinations plus this service would allow people to avoid have to travel across London or even changing at Birmingham new street etc

Taken to extremis, this is a pretty good - err "CrossRail 3"

Weymouth
Dorchester for Poole and Bournemouth
Yeovil Junction Lower Platform for Salisbury - Exteter line
Castle Cary for Taunton, Plymouth, Cornwll
Westbury for Reading, Newbury, Bath, Bristol
Chippenham for Bath and Bristol
Swindon for South Wales and Gloucseter
Oxford for Banbury and Leamington and for Worcester and Hereford
Bicester Village for Bang & Olufsen, Barbour, Beauté Prestige International, Belstaff, Benefit Cosmetics, Bonpoint, BOSS and many more
Bletchley for Northampton, North West, North Wales, Scotland
Bedford for Leicester, Derby, Nottingham and Sheffield. Also for Luton
Sandy for Peterbourough, Doncaster, Leeds, York and Newcastle
Cambridge for Kings Lynn and for Ipswich and Harwich
Norwich for Cromer, Sheringham, Lowestoft
Great Yarmouth

[grahame]

An hourly service with a running time of just over 1 hour Bristol to Oxford - 3 trains in the "cycle" - extend it to Milton Keynes and the running time looks like it would be around 1 hour 45 minutes, so 4 trains in the cycle (educated guess - looking at the running time of the Verney Venurer as shown on Six Bells Junction).  With the extra train required for this, we must note that it would / will be one of the Oxford - Milton Keynes services anyway, so that the it's not really an "extra" train. 

For sure, ChrisB, more peoeple coming into Oxford from Swindon would get off than stay on, but quite a number would stay on and many more would join.  Rather like the Cardiff - Portsmouth service has major changeovers at Bristol and at Southampton.