Cotswold Line redoubling: 2008 - 2011

[whole diary]

[willc]

From the Charlbury.info website, posted by local FGW^▸ (First Great Western) customer panel member Chris Bates:

FGW are organising 4 roadshows to advise on this summer's closure of the railway between 18th July and 30th August - although the actual closure affecting Charlbury towards Oxford & London may only be 2 weeks or so.

First details of passenger options during this closure should be available, along with actual details of what's planned for Charlbury station.

FGW Managers will be on hand to discuss the current plans for this work at the followong stations:

Evesham - Tuesday 10 February from 1830 to 2000hrs.
Kingham - Wednesday 11 February from 0700 to 0830hrs.
Moreton-in-Marsh - Wednesday 11 February from 1900 to 2030.
Charlbury - Thursday 12th February from 0700 to 0830hrs.

[gwr2006]

From the Charlbury.info website, posted by local FGW^▸ (First Great Western) customer panel member Chris Bates:

FGW are organising 4 roadshows to advise on this summer's closure of the railway between 18th July and 30th August - although the actual closure affecting Charlbury towards Oxford & London may only be 2 weeks or so.

First details of passenger options during this closure should be available, along with actual details of what's planned for Charlbury station.

FGW Managers will be on hand to discuss the current plans for this work at the followong stations:

Evesham - Tuesday 10 February from 1830 to 2000hrs.
Kingham - Wednesday 11 February from 0700 to 0830hrs.
Moreton-in-Marsh - Wednesday 11 February from 1900 to 2030.
Charlbury - Thursday 12th February from 0700 to 0830hrs.

These are only the regular Meet the Manager sessions that FGW hold at key stations every few months rather than being a roadshow to tell the public about redoubling.

The final scope of the redoubling works will not be known until the end of March once vegetation clearance has taken place and earthworks and drainage have been assessed. Design work is ongoing with the changes for Charlbury station, and other than saying there will be replacement buses, I'm not sure FGW can say much more about alternative arrangements until the timing and extent of the possessions are confirmed.

[willc]

No they're not. They don't hold MtM events at the stations on this line, only at Oxford - they're hardly key stations out here! The best they do on the line is to ride on a train or two, every so often, which is happening next Tuesday on the 13.20 from Hereford to London. There is no mention whatever of these events on the MtM page of the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) website.

As I said, the post was made by the local customer panel member, so has someone at FGW misinformed him?

You keep telling us the final scope won't be known until March. Fine, but that's really about the fine detail and fixing the overall budget. The broad scope of the work has been known since last April.

And it doesn't take a genius to work out that Charlbury will be getting a second platform, a waiting shelter and a disabled-accessible footbridge, which will likely be set as near the road overbridge as possible to minimise its impact on the view from the town across the valley. 

[super tm]

No they're not. They don't hold MtM events at the stations on this line, only at Oxford - they're hardly key stations out here! The best they do on the line is to ride on a train or two, every so often, which is happening next Tuesday on the 13.20 from Hereford to London. There is no mention whatever of these events on the MtM page of the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) website.

As I said, the post was made by the local customer panel member, so has someone at FGW misinformed him?

You keep telling us the final scope won't be known until March. Fine, but that's really about the fine detail and fixing the overall budget. The broad scope of the work has been known since last April.

And it doesn't take a genius to work out that Charlbury will be getting a second platform, a waiting shelter and a disabled-accessible footbridge, which will likely be set as near the road overbridge as possible to minimise its impact on the view from the town across the valley. 

Yes they are the post is accurate! I saw it  displayed at Evesham the other day.

[gwr2006]

No they're not. They don't hold MtM events at the stations on this line, only at Oxford - they're hardly key stations out here! The best they do on the line is to ride on a train or two, every so often, which is happening next Tuesday on the 13.20 from Hereford to London. There is no mention whatever of these events on the MtM page of the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) website.

As I said, the post was made by the local customer panel member, so has someone at FGW misinformed him?

You keep telling us the final scope won't be known until March. Fine, but that's really about the fine detail and fixing the overall budget. The broad scope of the work has been known since last April.

And it doesn't take a genius to work out that Charlbury will be getting a second platform, a waiting shelter and a disabled-accessible footbridge, which will likely be set as near the road overbridge as possible to minimise its impact on the view from the town across the valley. 

Yes, they are Meet the Manager events - I've had it confirmed by FGW. You should welcome the fact FGW are making more effort to talk to their customers at stations along the Cotswolds Line. I don't know where the customer panel member gets his information but clearly it has been misunderstood.

No it doesn't take much to work out what is going to happen at Charlbury, but if you regard "fine detail" as decisions on the location and configuration of the new footbridge okay but most local people will want to know that and those kind of decisions are still to be made.

[IndustryInsider]

I should imagine they are Meet The Manager sessions that are being held at those stations mainly because of the re-doubling scheme and the fact is that many of the questions they face will no doubt be concerned with that topic. I should imagine/hope they go equipped with the latest information regarding the re-doubling, and as such I suppose it is a kind of 'Re-doubling Roadshow'?

[willc]

Well, whatever they are and whatever they are called, maybe someone with FGW^▸ (First Great Western) ought to put the information on the Meet the Manager pages (which currently features other events up to the end of March) and the page about the redoubling project on the website. Nor have I received any email notification, despite signing up for this service.

On the subject of the redoubling page, there was a link to it from the home page for about a week, which has since disappeared, and the page is still not anywhere to be found on the site map, nor under the advance notice of long-term engineering work in train times, which would seem the obvious place, but then like so many things about FGW's approach to marketing and publicity, the obvious is the last thing which seems to be done.

If these events are to be become a regular feature at the stations on the line, great, but I'll reserve judgment on that until 2011, when spending an evening in Moreton-in-Marsh might not seem such a pressing concern after redoubling is complete.

At Charlbury a bridge can only go in two places, north or south of the station building, and south of it would, if the bridge is anything like the one recently built at Moreton, have a far greater impact on the setting of the listed station building and create an eyesore visible from all around, which would be bound to make the natives (very) restless, never mind whether they were getting a better train service in the end.

[Don]

Bumped into the station manager for the stations on the line. 

She stated that these meetings are meet and manager type but she is believes that by these dates, much of the more... exact information, will be available from on high for these managers to announce.

So everyone in this thread is right.

[willc]

Details of likely pattern of summer closures for track work, posted on Charlbury.info by chris Bates, with this proviso: "However, the schedule is still not yet set in stone, and could change slightly."

From the 18th July -
2 week block whole line - Wolvercote to Norton Junction
3 week block West of Moreton to East of Evesham
1 week block whole line - Wolvercote to Norton Junction.

[Btline]

What will happen to the trains?

I assume there will be a 2 hourly service from Great Malvern to London via Cheltenham Spa (with 4 extensions to Hereford).

Then a bus Worcester - Evesham - Moteton - Chipping Norton - Charlbury - Oxford.

I would have thought taxis/minibuses would be cheaper for other stations/ halts...

[willc]

Worcester and Malvern will certainly be served by extensions of Cheltenham services, though not sure how many will be to and from Hereford - it takes so long running via Worcester, Cheltenham and Stroud that surely going via Newport is the obvious thing to tell people to do for the duration.

Bus links will probably be similar to those during a two-week August blockade a few years back, and as you suggest basically running A44 between key stations, with Moreton acting as a railhead when trains can run there.

Kingham and Charlbury will most likely be served separately, as they are such a hike off the A44. I'm also assuming they'll do a deal with Stagecoach to take rail tickets on the route 20 (S3 from this weekend) buses between Chipping Norton, Charlbury and Oxford, which they did during the flooding closure in summer 2007.

I'd expect that from the Vale the focus will be to feed people into Worcester to join the London trains running from there.

[Btline]

I suppose the Hereford people might as well go to Newport....

[autotank]

Just a thought, but might it be worth running a few London - Bristol Parkway - Maindee Junction - Hereford - Great Malvern - Worcester services during the peaks of the blockade? I'm sure it has been mentioned before but it is probably quicker to get to Hereford via BPW^» (Bristol Parkway - next trains) and Maindee Junction than through Worcester and Oxford anyway. Could provide some interesting journey options.

[Andy W]

More likely they'll run through Cheltenham and on to Worcester

[stebbo]

Following the Westbourne Park crash and the loss of one HST^▸ (High Speed Train) set, the old 1820 to Hereford was cancelled and one of the Cheltenham services was extended via Worcester, so I assume FGW^▸ (First Great Western) might go for that option this time around. Remember it well as my first time on the train coincided with Cheltenham Festival -absolute carnage from Cheltenham to Worcester with Irish racegoers.