Cotswold Line redoubling: 2008 - 2011

[whole diary]

[willc]

I expect they will have a plan - the question is whether they will actually bother to share it with their passengers. They didn't bother to tell anyone they were putting on an extra HST^▸ (High Speed Train) or two for this event last August, so we shall see if they do any better this summer.

Had a quick spin through West Oxfordshire on the way to work today. No progress at the Ascott-under-Wychwood and Chilson end since my last visit but sleepers now stretch just west of the road bridge at Shorthampton, so just short of the slew point where the existing single line will be cut and moved over to join up with new track on opposite sides of the trackbed. Rails are placed on sleepers all the way from Charlbury almost to the bridge.

There are piles of steel reinforcements for footbridge piling ready for use at Charlbury, while near the Cornbury Park bridge just to the east, the cutting side is being reprofiled, apparently to make room for the point connecting the double and single track. I think this work may also be removing the badgers' sett but I'll have to check from a train to make sure.

Pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/willc2009/

[Worcester_Passenger]

Pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/willc2009/

The 'wobble' is very impressive!

[ChrisB]

I expect they will have a plan - the question is whether they will actually bother to share it with their passengers. They didn't bother to tell anyone they were putting on an extra HST^▸ (High Speed Train) or two for this event last August, so we shall see if they do any better this summer.

As long as they put additional HSTs on, why do they need to tell the public beforehand?

[Mookiemoo]

I expect they will have a plan - the question is whether they will actually bother to share it with their passengers. They didn't bother to tell anyone they were putting on an extra HST^▸ (High Speed Train) or two for this event last August, so we shall see if they do any better this summer.

As long as they put additional HSTs on, why do they need to tell the public beforehand?

Because if I still lived in worcester area - whether or not there are additional HSTs would make the difference to whether I travel and if I HAD to travel which way I would go

[ChrisB]

I think you'd find the festival goers would still fill the extra HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train)....I'd be avoiding like the plague, even with HSTs.

[willc]

I expect they will have a plan - the question is whether they will actually bother to share it with their passengers. They didn't bother to tell anyone they were putting on an extra HST^▸ (High Speed Train) or two for this event last August, so we shall see if they do any better this summer.

As long as they put additional HSTs on, why do they need to tell the public beforehand?

Well in this case, given that the direct route to London will be closed, it would probably be a very good idea if they do tell people exactly what they are up to, well in advance, so their passengers can plan accordingly, whether going to Big Chill, or not. The mid-morning Monday trains back from Worcestershire were very well-filled last year, I seem to recall.

Under the normal arrangements that have applied during the previous engineering blockades, there are no through Paddington services at that time of the day. I would venture to suggest that on that Monday, one or two such trains, well publicised, would be very useful indeed. Also out from London on the Saturday morning. Otherwise, it's likely to be mayhem on the trains from Malvern down to Cheltenham and Bristol Parkway (a valid route to and from London during the blockades) and on the coaches between Worcester to Moreton-in-Marsh (and at Moreton, especially if the only train available there is a Turbo).

And if this discussion is to continue, perhaps it might be moved by the moderators into a thread of its own?

[ChrisB]

Buit they told the festival-goers last year, the vast majority travelling.....which kept them off the other trains, as a whole.

[Richard Fairhurst]

I'd be interested to see research into how travellers plan their journeys.

My suspicion for a one-off event appealing to a young audience, such as the Big Chill, is that at least 60% of journeys would be planned using journey-planning websites, with most of the rest via 08457 484950 and perhaps a few at ticket offices. For all three, as long as the trains are in the database in good time, the publicity doesn't matter.

That's not to say that publicity isn't important in general, but I suspect much less so for an event like this.

[willc]

Buit they told the festival-goers last year, the vast majority travelling.....which kept them off the other trains, as a whole.

Chris, where do you get that idea from? The information about HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) vice Turbos was never made available to the public - it was discussed somewhere here at the time and i seem to remember Ollie (and Insider?) was about the only person who seemed to know what stock was actually in use. And which trains did it keep them off? As far as I'm aware, festival-goers going home were on pretty much everything that moved from Sunday evening well into Monday, and the same applied when they were on the way out to Malvern on the Friday and Saturday.

I'm not bothered too much about the publicity - especially given that we are talking about a train operator whose website's news section is rarely troubled by new information and which can't actually display anything after 2010 anyway, due to the way it is configured. More bothered as to whether any extras will run through to/from London via Stroud on the Saturday and Monday - which would have to be HSTs anyway.

[willc]

Back out on the line, the work to make room for the new junction point east of Charlbury has indeed obliterated the badger sett, so they'll just have to stick to their main residence nearby. At the station concrete was poured today in a rough square around some of the piling on the new platform, which looks like it will be where the footbridge ramp ends.

At Ascott-under-Wychwood the new signal equipment cabin has been delivered and placed on the area built up with the stone gabions across the line from the signal box.

[IanL]

At Charlbury, shuttering going in at the end of the footbridge ramp this morning (where Will noted the concrete pour) and bullnose edging for the platform starting along the platform edge. Also excavations around a similar square around some pilings at the west end of the platform.

The pronounced wobble visible in the new rails yesterday has been largely removed overnight.

[willc]

Big push with rail clipping overnight has seen them placed on sleepers all the way from Chilson to just short of Ascott-under-Wychwood. Lots of S&T^▸ (Signalling and Telegraph) activity at Ascott around the new equipment cabin.

[willc]

Some pictures taken this morning in Oxfordshire now online at http://www.flickr.com/photos/willc2009/

[willc]

Few pictures from Oxfordshire this afternoon now online. Concrete was being poured for footbridge pilings at Charlbury on the car park side and work to excavate the rectangles for concreting around the pilings on the new platform was well in hand. The cutting side near the junction area at Cornbury is now being reprofiled to create a smooth slope down to the trackbed.

[willc]

The wobble at Charlbury has been straightened out and some top ballast applied towards Walcot.