Chiltern Evergreen 3 project - ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[TonyK]

I've been to Eton too. But I didn't like the pub I found so I walked back across the Town Bridge to Windsor.

I was doing the drains.

[Oberon]

Does this mean Oxford-Cambridge reinstatement, which has been talked about for seeming decades now, is going to slip ever further behind?

http://www.bedfordtoday.co.uk/news/business/business-news/rail-line-delays-harm-economy-1-7047678

[ChrisB]

yes....

[paul7575]

The section of EWR^▸ (East West Railway (Oxford to Bedford), or possibly East Worthing station, depending on context) east of Bedford is still uncommitted, and is yet to appear in a HLOS^▸ (High Level Output Specification - the DfT's High Level Output Specification, which has specified to Network Rail the outputs that need to be delivered within a Control Period (CP)) as a DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) sponsored requirement, so it is difficult to say it has actually been 'delayed'.

Paul

[Oberon]

Yes I suppose even the project being "delayed" sounds a bit too optimistic.

[bobm]

Despite some appalling weather, I took a trip to see Oxford Parkway and take the train to London on Friday.

Arriving at Oxford I took the Park and Ride bus to Oxford Parkway.  Despite the usual slow traffic along the Banbury Road the bus was only two minutes late at its destination and so maintained the connection to the train advertised in the timetable.





The station is light and airy



It has no ticket office but three machines inside and one outside to purchase tickets.  These are the three interior ones which drew some comment earlier in the thread



There is a small caf^ but a slight niggle, if you sit in the caf^ area you cannot see any departure screens.

The trains are all using the far platform at the moment, from where you can get a glimpse of the work being done to take the line back to the city centre.



I know it was a wet day, but the windows on my train to London were the filthiest I have had on a train in a long time.  I caught one of the fast ones which only calls at Islip and Bicester Village and then London. 



Annoyingly I cannot find some pictures I took at the old Bicester Town station in FGW^▸ (First Great Western) days, but it has certainly been transformed.  I was a little amused by the running in boards which say "Bicester Village, change here for Bicester Town Centre".

The train was very busy from Bicester - with a lot of shoppers returning to London.  Good journey and made a change from the usual route via Reading.

_{(Minor edit by FT, N! to correct font.)}

[IndustryInsider]

Despite some appalling weather, I took a trip to see Oxford Parkway and take the train to London on Friday.

The trains are all using the far platform at the moment, from where you can get a glimpse of the work being done to take the line back to the city centre.

Thanks, bobm.

With regard to the platform of trains, the vast majority use the far side platform, but the other platform can be used for departures to London if need be and the daily loco-hauled service uses it.  The signalling is more restrictive in the 'wrong' direction though with only one signalling section between Oxford Parkway and the Bicester COD reception sidings.  It's good that reversible working is available though as trains will still be able to run in the event of a failure. 

The other platform will of course come into much more frequent use when the section through to Oxford proper opens.  If anyone is interested here are some planning diagrams of the work currently going on in the Oxford North Junction area as part of those works - 75mph crossovers replacing the current 25mph one.  It also gives details of the current, interim and final layouts of Oxford station as they currently stand:

http://www.oxford.gov.uk/Library/Documents/Planning/East%20West%20Rail%20B90505B-DRG-PWY3003%20AD%2021-4-15.pdf

http://www.oxford.gov.uk/Library/Documents/Planning/East%20West%20Rail%20B90505B-DRG-PWY3004.pdf

[SandTEngineer]

Thanks for posting those documents II.  Good to see some significant PSR^▸ (Permanent Speed Restriction) increases which should help ease some of the congestion issues at Oxford.

[Timmer]

After seeing the pic of the new ticket machines I can understand why comments have been made about their size.

[paul7575]

If anyone is interested here are some planning diagrams of the work currently going on in the Oxford North Junction area as part of those works - 75mph crossovers replacing the current 25mph one.  It also gives details of the current, interim and final layouts of Oxford station as they currently stand:

Did you find that via the planning site 'application search', because I can't seem to locate the application it is part of.  Did you perhaps record the planning application number, please?

Paul

[stuving]

If anyone is interested here are some planning diagrams of the work currently going on in the Oxford North Junction area as part of those works - 75mph crossovers replacing the current 25mph one.  It also gives details of the current, interim and final layouts of Oxford station as they currently stand:

Did you find that via the planning site 'application search', because I can't seem to locate the application it is part of.  Did you perhaps record the planning application number, please?

Paul

That one is 15/01978/CND. It's one of four (at least) that are actually to do with noise - 15/03110/CND, 15/02501/CND, and 15/02673/CND are the others. The original "application" was the TWA^▸ (Transport and Works Act 1992), referred to as TWA/10/APP/01, but that doesn't work as a search name. There is a page full of interesting-looking links (http://oxford.live.jadu.net/downloads/20211/east_west_rail_phase_1) - all broken. Oxford City Council seem to have been playing games with the structure of this planning section, so it's hard to say what is actually there and mis-linked and what isn't here at all.

[paul7575]

Thanks for digging those out. I assume the suffix /CND indicates a condition for final approval.  Will have a browse tomorrow...

Paul

[IndustryInsider]

Did you find that via the planning site 'application search', because I can't seem to locate the application it is part of.  Did you perhaps record the planning application number, please?

I got those two links from the following page on the Council website:

http://www.oxford.gov.uk/PageRender/decVanilla/RailwayDevelopments.htm

Lots of other links on that page, but they were the two most useful in terms of showing the track layouts.  If anyone can find links to the other drawings, numbered 3001, 3002, 3005, 3006, 3022, 3023, then I'd very much like to see them!

[stuving]

Thanks for digging those out. I assume the suffix /CND indicates a condition for final approval.  Will have a browse tomorrow...

Paul

If you put the TWA^▸ (Transport and Works Act 1992) reference number (TWA/10/APP/01) into Google you can immediately find:

• the inspector's report, which contains all the conditions
• the inspector's Second Addendum Report
• the Secretary of State's "views" letter (more or less a draft of the order)
• lots of planning stuff about the conditions, mostly from Cherwell and Oxford City

What you can't find are the application and order - but the first is a parliamentary bill and the second is (I think) a statutory instrument. Thus both should be on the relevant web sites, though I've not been to look for them.

[paul7575]

If you put the TWA^▸ (Transport and Works Act 1992) reference number (TWA/10/APP/01) into Google you can immediately find:

I've seen all the TWA stuff already, directly from the TWA inquiry site.   I was only asking about how to find the stuff that's on OCC's planning dept site  for conditions to be approved.

Paul