Oxford to Bicester Line - FGW and Chiltern Railways (merged topics)

[whole diary]

[ChrisB]

Hmmm - there were only 8 of us there......I think she's counted the officers twice.

[willc]

By way of a follow-up to the mention in the minutes of new CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) system, following has appeared at Obrag website

Customer Information Systems
February 23rd, 2010
FGW^▸ (First Great Western) are planning to replace the existing help points and Customer Information System (CIS) at Islip and Bicester with a new system. Details are in the following communication from FGW:

^At Islip and Bicester we are removing the current Help Points and CIS and replacing them with a WebCIS unit.
These act as Help Points and will have two buttons ^ one to contact National Rail and the other for Emergencies.
Additionally the Help Point has a screen that reflects the current train service from its location ^ as the information on the screen will be fed directly from our new CIS server it will reflect the very latest available information.
That is to say should we replace a train service between Oxford and Bicester and return by bus this will show on the Help Point screen.
Furthermore the new style help points will have the ability to rung up from either a staffed station or the control centre and a broadcast live annoucement made to customers.

The date of install at Islip and Bicester has not been finalised yet but hopefully these Help Points will appear shortly after April.^

[willc]

From http://www.obrag.org.uk

Meeting with Chiltern Railways
Updated, as date of meeting has changed:

The OBRAG committee will be meeting with Chiltern Railways on 19 April 2010. The purpose is to talk about concerns that we have, as a group, about the proposed service level after Chiltern take over from FGW^▸ (First Great Western) on the Bicester Link line.

Currently on the agenda are: loss of enhanced service, fares, bikes, station facilities, car parking.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Thanks, willc: I've taken the liberty of adding this topic to our calendar. C. 

[Btline]

What's wrong now? You're going to have an upgraded line, fast journey times to London with reasonable fares and a new parkway station! Not to mention a link to High Wycombe.

What more do you want? Many people would love to have the old woeful service provided by FGW^▸ (First Great Western) let alone Chiltern's transformation!

[devon_metro]

Have you ever considered a job in the Chiltern Railways PR^▸ (Public Relations) department...?

[Btline]

Well you have to see what I mean! If it was about the changes to the calling patterns on the mainline I could understand. (even though I think the changes are for the better overall)

[inspector_blakey]

Have you ever considered a job in the Chiltern Railways PR^▸ (Public Relations) department...?

I thought Btline already did (although perhaps in a voluntary capacity)!

I think the point that OBRAG are making is that recently there have been really significant improvements in service on the Bicester branch, and they're keen to ensure that The Sainted Chiltern aren't planning to reverse those improvements. After all, are Chiltern really interested in serving Bicester and Islip as part of their "transformation", or are they more keen on the (possibly more lucrative) Oxford and Water Eaton traffic...? These are, at the very least, legitimate questions and there's nothing wrong with asking them.

[Btline]

There will be 2 trains an hour to Bicester Town - an improvement. I fail to see how Chiltern are not "serving" Bicester in this respect. Adding in the 2 tph from Bicester North and the major journey time reduction, that argument is completely invalidated!

Water Eaton will more than make up for any losses at Islip. But I'm sure Chiltern can easily put in extra Islip stops if they see the demand.

[inspector_blakey]

Water Eaton will more than make up for any losses at Islip.

Not if you live in Islip, I would assume...

I'd consider that answer to be

vague and not solid enough - i.e. typical Liberal Democrat.

Anyway, like I said, there's no reason to flame people for asking perfectly reasonable questions!

[willc]

Quite.

What I would suggest you do, btline, is look at the Stage 2 timetable on the Chiltern Mainline site and compare the number of calls at Islip, in particular, under that timetable, with those currently provided on the 'enhanced' FGW^▸ (First Great Western) timetable, where a number of extra trains over and above those required by the franchise are provided with help from the county council, using planning gain money from Bicester Village.

Do that and then you might see what Obrag are worried about. For example, as I have posted elsewhere, on the phase 2 draft timetable, there is no service indicated from Islip into Oxford from about 6.35 until 10am, even if the current 8am-ish Bicester-Oxford train is full leaving Islip every weekday morning.

Water Eaton is about traffic going out of Oxford to London. The current branch timetable is all about travel into Oxford and back home - from both Bicester and Islip and the people using that service would like to keep it. They couldn't give two hoots about being able to get to High Wycombe.

I am not in the habit of posting up my journalism here, preferring to let others find it, but I think the following is relevant in terms of explaining where Obrag are coming from. This was published last week in a story about station usage.

Booming business on the Oxford-Bicester Town branch line will be used by the Oxford-Bicester Rail Action Group to help press the Government to increase the minimum guaranteed number of trains serving Bicester Town and Islip when the line transfers from FGW to Chiltern Railways next year to become part of a second Oxford-London route.

Bicester Town saw 60,638 journeys, up 17 per cent from 51,902 a year earlier, in part thanks to extra trains funded by the county, reversing cuts made in 2006.

At Islip, custom was up by 20 per cent, to 17,062 journeys from 14,120, though still short of the 18,988 seen in 2004-5.

OBRAG chairman Dr Ian East said the growth had been maintained after the end of the counting period, with FGW telling the group that in the 12 months to last September, there were 19,833 journeys at Islip and 77,258 at Bicester Town. He said: ^These figures show the remarkable effect of the four extra trains a day.

^Demand at Islip, in particular, is likely to rise dramatically with the new destinations possible via Evergreen3.

^We must keep the extra trains at both stations.^

[Btline]

I'm sure Chiltern will be able to put in Islip calls without any hiccups.

[Chris from Nailsea]

I am not in the habit of posting up my journalism here, preferring to let others find it ...

I do my best! 

[John R]

I'm sure Chiltern will be able to put in Islip calls without any hiccups.

I'm sure they will once they have engaged with OBRAG. However, as supporters of another branch line (also reopened in the 80s) have found out, it's a lot easier to influence changes prior to introduction than subsequently. I don't see what your problem is btline, the user group have identified deficiencies for Islip in the timetable and they are meeting with Chiltern to try and rectify them.

[inspector_blakey]

I think the problem is that nothing Chiltern (pause for a moment's reverence please) do under any circumstances could ever be wrong or even slightly sub-optimal in any way at all...