Culham station - facilities, services and events - merged posts

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Today ... departures from Culham at 13:17, 14:01, 15:17, 16:01

A month today (also a weekday) - just the 15:17

Is there a problem with the online timetable (half the TransWilts service disappeared for seveal weeks the December before last) or are there really going to be service cuts in the next few weeks?

[willc]

Well that's what the pdf says is the case. But it's probably a realistic reflection of traffic patterns, which are commuter travel to Oxford, Reading and London and back home, along with morning flows into Culham and out again in the late afternoon and early evening of staff at the Culham Science Centre and the associated business parks.

[inspector_blakey]

From my observations (mostly evening and weekend journeys, although a few in the weekday peak) Culham sees almost no traffic outside of the peaks. By contrast Appleford and in particular Radley are pretty well used most of the time: unusual to stop at either without picking up/setting down a few people at least.

[gwr2006]

Well that's what the pdf says is the case. But it's probably a realistic reflection of traffic patterns, which are commuter travel to Oxford, Reading and London and back home, along with morning flows into Culham and out again in the late afternoon and early evening of staff at the Culham Science Centre and the associated business parks.

As willc said these changes reflect the pattern of travel from these stations (Appleford also has a reduction off-peak). Appleford is a very small village of around 350 people many of whom do not use the train at all. At Culham the biggest users are commuters heading to the adjacent Culham Science Centre in the morning (mainly from Oxford) and home again towards Oxford in the afternoon, with a few heading to Didcot for connecting trains into London.

This is an extremely busy section of railway because the four-track GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line) becomes two tracks north to Oxford, and with increasing freight and cross-country the stations are seen as the biggest constraint due to their very low usage - stopping trains off-peak when there are no passengers not only costs money, it is bad for the environment and blocks the main line.

However, more stops are planned for Radley from December, recognising that it is by far the busiest of the three stations by some margin and has recently been transformed with funding from the county council. With a regular bus service to Abingdon (pop 36,000) as well it really has the most potential.

[PeterAtJET]

As an annual season ticket holder, Didcot to Culham, I have a somewhat different perspective. A doctors appointment or trip to the post-office in the morning will now involve a 6 hour delay getting to work. Late shifts become impossible.


It could be worse of course. I used to live in Appleford

[grahame]

As an annual season ticket holder, Didcot to Culham, I have a somewhat different perspective. A doctors appointment or trip to the post-office in the morning will now involve a 6 hour delay getting to work. Late shifts become impossible.


It could be worse of course. I used to live in Appleford

Welcome to the forum, Peter.  I have to say that I had profound misgivings when I saw that service cut.

Knowing that the Council has been involved with improvements in the recent past, I found it surprising that the service seemed to being cut so shortly thereafter; I'm certainly familiar with this sort of thing at my own local station ... a long and sorry tale that belongs on the "TransWilts" board, but also elsewhere as a lesson to everyone to keep there eyes open, and not to assume that service "modifications" are in the best interests of the people who want to use the trains.

There are balances to be struck, as other posters rightly comment.   But there are also an awful lot of half-truths and quarter-stories told to tip such balances.  Alas - I may sound a little like I am ranting[ once bitten, twice shy.   I live in a town of 22,000 people.  And with a gap in our trains from 07:17 to 19:11.   The average person here makes 1.9 train journeys per year.  The average person in the next town (population 28,000) makes 50 train journeys per year.  That's the difference that an appropriate service can make!

On the practical side ... have you considered what you can / should do?   Is this something to simply accept, or something to question?   If there is a help point at the stationc, could they not become request stops during the day, with people contacting control a few minutes before the train is due rather than even slowing down?

[IndustryInsider]

As willc said these changes reflect the pattern of travel from these stations (Appleford also has a reduction off-peak). Appleford is a very small village of around 350 people many of whom do not use the train at all. At Culham the biggest users are commuters heading to the adjacent Culham Science Centre in the morning (mainly from Oxford) and home again towards Oxford in the afternoon, with a few heading to Didcot for connecting trains into London.

This is an extremely busy section of railway because the four-track GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line) becomes two tracks north to Oxford, and with increasing freight and cross-country the stations are seen as the biggest constraint due to their very low usage - stopping trains off-peak when there are no passengers not only costs money, it is bad for the environment and blocks the main line.

However, more stops are planned for Radley from December, recognising that it is by far the busiest of the three stations by some margin and has recently been transformed with funding from the county council. With a regular bus service to Abingdon (pop 36,000) as well it really has the most potential.

I don't dispute anything that you say gwr2006, though I have to say I think the cuts have gone a little too far. It really is asking for negative publicity when you remove trains to give a six hour gaping gap in the service. In my opinion a much better idea would be to stop one train at Culham and one train at Appleford in the middle of this gap so that you would then only have a three hour gap. That way you'd probably get the odd murmurings of discontent, but not negative notices being placed on waiting shelters by concerned passengers - and no doubt negative coverage in the local press.

After all, what happens to these trains? They just save two minutes on their journey, and, in the case of up services, simply languish at Didcot for nine minutes rather than seven! There isn't much of a case on a commercial basis, but having a train around noon or lunchtime to Culham would enable commuters to have a half-day and still use the train and also anyone visiting on business to the science centre to be there for meetings for the morning or afternoon. With Appleford a lunchtime train would be useful for shoppers.

Turning a 2-hourly service into a 6-hour void simply adds fuel to those that contest that FGW^▸ (First Great Western) doesn't give a hoot about providing a service and is purely in it for the money.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Coverage of the service cuts at Culham and Appleford, from the Oxford Mail:

Protesters fear loss of rail link

Residents of a south Oxfordshire village fear they could lose their train station after cuts left them without afternoon trains to Oxford.

First Great Western withdrew two off-peak weekday services from Appleford to Oxford and three to London via Didcot, when it launched its summer timetable two weeks ago. Residents claimed they received no warning of the changes. At the same time two off-peak services have been axed each way at Culham station.

The cuts mean there is now no service from Appleford to Oxford between 11am and 5pm and no train from Culham to Oxford from 10.01am to 4.01pm.

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) said the changes were made because very few people used the services affected and to help keep other trains on the busy Oxford-Didcot line running on time.

Eighty people held a protest at Appleford station against the cuts, which they fear could lead to them losing the 160-year-old station.

Twenty years ago Appleford and Culham had hourly trains to Oxford and London. The only other public transport in Appleford is a twice-weekly bus to Abingdon.

A spokesman for FGW said: ^We have no plans to stop running trains from Appleford and Culham stations. We^re required to operate a minimum level of service within our contract, which we are currently exceeding. The number of people who wrote in to comment about the removal of these stops vastly exceeds those using the services regularly. This is a particularly congested part of the network and the timings of trains are very tight. Although the changes will inconvenience a small number of people, we have to balance this against the positive impact it will have on the vast majority of our customers^ journeys.^

[Btline]

I very much doubt FGW^▸ (First Great Western) would risk closing the station!

Come on, we still have "the halts"!

[IndustryInsider]

And that is exactly the kind of negative publicity that could have been avoided had FGW^▸ (First Great Western) done what I suggested in my previous post. Damage now done though...  

[James_H]

The weird thing is that the last train (00:20 I think) south from Oxford on weekday nights stops at both stations... and no-one ever gets on/ off.  I guess the line's pretty clear late at night so the congestion issues don't exist, but it seems a bit odd!

[grahame]

The weird thing is that the last train (00:20 I think) south from Oxford on weekday nights stops at both stations... and no-one ever gets on/ off.  I guess the line's pretty clear late at night so the congestion issues don't exist, but it seems a bit odd!

Hi, James.   I often wondered about places which had a daytime public transport service, a hiatus in the evening, and a late night service;  I was told that this service was provided for people who want to go out for the evening and then need to get home.  I also heard that such services provide a "mop up" for long distance travellers needing to get home very late.  You'll notice that I have written in the past tense - this was all a long time ago.  If you have a look at the Jacobs report which was used as the basis to the current (SLC2 timetable), you'll find that it covers last train times issues too, and as I recall there are some interesting comments / references.

But just last month, I was talking to (OK, being lectured by ) a lady who is key in the specification of public subsidised public transport, and she stressed the importance of people in remote towns and villages not being isolated / being able to go out for the night. And her organisation (not Oxfordshire, by the way) has subsidised public transport at up to 11.50 per journey as a priority over spending 1.50 per journey (10 pounds per 'bum on seat' less) to buy journeys that are much longer, and would be much more heavily used.   Perhaps this is the reason for that late night call?

Are you a regular passenger on that 00:20 from Oxford train, James ... how big is your sample? What on earth are you doing up at that hour of the morning  ...

[81F]

Made a trip to Culham yesterday to sample the wares at the re-opened Railway Inn, where some fine local ale from West Berks and Abingdon Bridge is to be had.
While crossing the footbridge noticed that there appears to have been a ham-handed attempt to steal the lead from the station roof -- such a shame!

[ChrisB]

From Round & About Magazine

To mark its 180th anniversary the Old Ticket Office at Culham will open to the public as part of this year’s Heritage open Days on September 14th & 15th
This year Heritage Open Days celebrates Routes, Networks & Connections, and this will provide a rare opportunity to see inside an original Brunel designed broad gauge station building.

The old ticket office at Culham is one of the best preserved of Brunel’s characteristic and charmingly designed small country station buildings, and the only survivor of this particular Tudor Revival design.

The office is Grade II* listed and retains many of its original features including, large fireplace, glass ticket window, unique architectural details and original 1844 work tops. On display will be original signal box equipment, models of local coal wagons, and much more with some items of memorabilia on sale and many free souvenirs to take away including postcards, colouring sheets, tickets and our 32-page illustrated Discovery Trail booklet.

Keen model makers can also download free model sheets of the old ticket office from the website.

Come and explore inside the building and its surroundings using the Discovery Trail booklet, you may be surprised to see just how much there is to discover. See if you can find where a bullet ricocheted from the ticket counter when a passenger was shot in 1868!

The Old Ticket Office is on Platform 2, Culham Station OX14 3BT. Free parking is available both by the ticket office and on the opposite side of the tracks at The Railway Inn. The station will also be served by certain local buses and trains on Saturday.

For more information about the Old Ticket see Culham Ticket Office

[Oxonhutch]

Will it be selling tickets?