Cotswold Line redoubling: 2008 - 2011

[whole diary]

[ChrisB]

Charlbury parking ^3.80 per day for peak parking, acoording to Apcoa site http://www.apcoa.co.uk/carparks/charlbury-station
You didn't really think FGW^▸ (First Great Western) and Thames before them would miss out on such an easy source of so much revenue did you?

Well.....Hanborough is free. Honeybourne is free.

[Richard Fairhurst]

I guess a lot depends on how competently the Oxford-Marylebone service runs at first. I have a lot of time for Chiltern but they haven't exactly covered themselves in glory of late. If we have a bedded-down redoubled Cotswold Line service vs an erratic Chiltern service...

[willc]

Charlbury parking ^3.80 per day for peak parking, acoording to Apcoa site http://www.apcoa.co.uk/carparks/charlbury-station
You didn't really think FGW^▸ (First Great Western) and Thames before them would miss out on such an easy source of so much revenue did you?

Well.....Hanborough is free. Honeybourne is free.

And are both too small to meet current demand, with just the prospect of five or six more spaces being squeezed in at Honeybourne in the summer by re-marking and using a bit of the approach road, and no sign anyone knows what to do to help matters at Hanborough.

Charlbury is already the key traffic magnet on the line. Add several dozen more parking spaces (which could perfectly well be part-funded out of the considerable sums that car park generates), an HST^▸ (High Speed Train) starting there, the prospect of a few seats opening up on other trains as a result of people adjusting their journeys to use the new working and you will only increase its attractiveness and soon soak up much of the extra capacity - even if it doesn't fill the HST just yet - and that's without taking account of any growth/returning traffic anywhere else along the line. I just hope someone somewhere is thinking about what might happen and how they might deal with growth, particularly in the morning peak, otherwise people might wonder what all the money is being spent for.

Due to the Cathedrals Express running about 30 minutes late because of lineside equipment problems, or something like that, I drove today, so went the long way to take photos at Ascott-under-Wychwood and Charlbury. No sign of work at Ascott when I was there but at Charlbury a drilling rig was working on footbridge footings and a gang was busy breaking up large pieces of Cotswold stone into smaller pieces which were then being packed carefully into the gabions/cages being used to build up the bank at the north end of the existing platform. Pics at http://www.flickr.com/photos/willc2009/

[IndustryInsider]

Due to the Cathedrals Express running about 30 minutes late because of lineside equipment problems, or something like that

A conduit pipe in Campden Tunnel, near the Moreton end portal, had partly broken away and trains were hitting it so had to be cautioned.

[ChrisB]

I just hope someone somewhere is thinking about what might happen and how they might deal with growth, particularly in the morning peak, otherwise people might wonder what all the money is being spent for.

It's reasonably well known that the driver for these works was performance related - nothing to do with extra trains / passengers.

[willc]

Yes Chris, if you want to be really pedantic, given that the scheme was initially driven by Network Rail, because of the wider performance problems trains using the line were causing.

But it is equally well known that the existing infrastructure acts as a constraint on how many trains can use the line, thus acting as a brake on the potential custom, which, overall, has been growing for 30 years, in spite of those constraints.

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) could simply have sat on their hands and done nothing to the timetable post-September and said 'look how great our punctuality is now'. Instead, they have chosen to increase the service and the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) has agreed to that. Presumably both basing their decisions on the belief that the improved punctuality and extra trains will indeed attract more passengers, to cover the cost of those service improvements.

This morning gabions were being put in place to strengthen the north side of the embankment just west of the level crossing at Ascott, more piling work was under way at Charlbury and S&T^▸ (Signalling and Telegraph) teams were out and about at several points.

[ChrisB]

I think we regulars on here need to remember that this is not just our friendly chatting area, but open to all & sundry. You don't meed to be a member to read this board.

Hence if you ask a question without making it obvious it is rhetorical, it ought to be answered for *anyone* that might be reading, not just us know-alls

[Andrew1939 from West Oxon]

What a lot of comments in the last few days. I do not have much technical knowledge on the line but I do know a little about Hanborough station and its problems.
It has been said that nothing is being done about the parking problems at Hanborough but I can assure readers that there have been a number of meetings in recent months involving senior FGW^▸ (First Great Western) management , Oxon CC and West Oxon DC^▸ (Direct Current) as well as local interested parties. Oxon CC has said that it has no money to spend on Hanborough parking as has FGW. In the first case it is budgetary cutbacks and in the second, FGW has only a few years left on its franchise (2013 or 2116?). However local parishioners are very concerned about the increasing parking problems on the A4095 highway outside of the station where parking on the grass verges has been growing considerable and over 30 cars have been counted there on the highway. There are very real safety concerns about the situation and it causes queues way back through the village because off the volume of traffic. However one of Hanborough's district councillors has proposed that the field on the northwest side of the line could be used for a new car park but it would be very expensive to develop as there would need to be a new footbridge crossing the line and access to the field would need the installation of traffic lights on road safety grounds. He has suggested that if planning permission could be made available for the construction a good number of houses, the developer could be required to make a S.106 contribution to pay for the car park. The problem this gives rise to is that Hanborough is currently classed as only having new residential development permitted in the form of "Infill" and "Rounding Off", i.e. just the occasional few house and this situation is due to continue if the next local plan goes as currently proposed is confirmed so that would rule out a planning consent and thus no additional station car park.
What is so stupid about this situation is that the proposed local plan makes provision for thousands of new homes in West Oxon but most would be located at West Witney and Carterton just about as far from the Cotswold Line as you can get in the District. What makes these planning proposals worse is that a substantial propoertion of new homes built in recent years and likely into the future will be occupied by people needing to travel east each day for their work to Oxford, Bucks, Berks, London & the South East. There are no significant plans to improve the A40, such as a dualling proposal made in the 80s and currently the A40 has bumper to bumper queues from Witney to Oxford that will get worse when thousands of new homes have been built. The logic, with so many people neeeding to go east for work, is to build the homes next to the railway station where they could just have few minutes to walk to the train. How's that for a "green" initiative, but the planners do not see it that way? I now look for pages of comments from readers on this!

[willc]

When I said nothing is being done, what I meant was that there is no clear plan, agreed by interested parties, nor any path set out to achieve that. I don't dispute that the problem is understood and people have talked about it but we are no nearer getting a solution.

And any prospect of that in the next few years is remote. The county council, which was the key contributor to the improvements in recent years at Charlbury and Kingham's car parks, hasn't even got enough money to keep what most people would regard as basic services running, never mind do anything else. FGW^▸ (First Great Western)'s position is easily understood.

It would take a very large housing development to produce a big enough section 106 payment to cover the likely bill for a scheme along the lines suggested. The sum involved would be such that that it might well be cheaper to buy out North Oxford Garage - a nice flat site, right next to the station. And I can just imagine what the reaction among many locals might be to a large housing development and the creation of a traffic magnet, in the shape of a large station car park. I suspect they would probably think building yet more homes in Witney or Carterton is a fine idea.

[willc]

Took a look at progress in the Vale of Evesham earlier today. Tracklaying has now reached Aldington Siding, with compacted ballast stretching out of sight towards the eastern River Avon bridge at Evesham - not sure whether it's over the bridge or nearing the station, as that's a pretty awkward section of the line to get a sight of from anywhere with public access, rather like the last little bit of double track will be to the west of the town. Pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/willc2009/sets/72157624136810327/

[pbc2520]

as that's a pretty awkward section of the line to get a sight of from anywhere with public access

May be you could get shown around in style...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Draisine-templin.jpg
I'll pedal!

[SandTEngineer]

Took a look at progress in the Vale of Evesham earlier today. Tracklaying has now reached Aldington Siding, with compacted ballast stretching out of sight towards the eastern River Avon bridge at Evesham - not sure whether it's over the bridge or nearing the station, as that's a pretty awkward section of the line to get a sight of from anywhere with public access, rather like the last little bit of double track will be to the west of the town. Pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/willc2009/sets/72157624136810327/

Don't think anybody has mentioned this yet but I do like your photograph captions.  Hope you don't run out of them before the project is completed

[Electric train]

Took a look at progress in the Vale of Evesham earlier today. Tracklaying has now reached Aldington Siding, with compacted ballast stretching out of sight towards the eastern River Avon bridge at Evesham - not sure whether it's over the bridge or nearing the station, as that's a pretty awkward section of the line to get a sight of from anywhere with public access, rather like the last little bit of double track will be to the west of the town. Pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/willc2009/sets/72157624136810327/

Don't think anybody has mentioned this yet but I do like your photograph captions.  Hope you don't run out of them before the project is completed

Me to, a great diary of the project

[Chris from Nailsea]

Don't think anybody has mentioned this yet but I do like your photograph captions.  Hope you don't run out of them before the project is completed

Cough ... well, I have, actually: see http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=3602.msg85697#msg85697

Thanks again, willc! 

[IndustryInsider]

And me - though I can't be bothered to find it!