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Rail firms want branch line and station reopened (From Herald Series)
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Rail firms want branch line and station reopened
5:11pm Wednesday 24th June 2009
A NEW railway station to serve Grove and Wantage and a reopened branch line linking Witney and Oxford are on a list of rail network improvements proposed by the body representing train companies.
The Association of Train Operating Companies says the £4m Grove project would be good value for money, although residents remain pessimistic that the proposal will become a reality.
Atoc estimates that the benefits of building new platforms at the site of the former Wantage Road station, alongside the A338 just north of Grove, would far outweigh the cost of reinstating the station and running trains to serve it.
The report also says that the reopening of the branch line to Witney, at a cost of £95m, should be “evaluated” for Government assistance with the capital costs of rebuilding, because once reopened it could operate profitably, carrying commuters to Oxford.
The branch line, from the former Yarnton Junction station, on the Cotswold Line, closed to passengers in 1962 and freight in 1970.
Hugh Jaeger, a spokesman for the Thames Valley branch of campign group Railfuture, said: “Railfuture has long campaigned for the reopening of the former station at Grove and the railway to Witney.
“We welcome Atoc’s report as proof that there’s now a serious business case for considering both proposals.”
In October 2007, Oxfordshire County Council was granted outline planning permission for a new station at Grove. Wantage Road station closed during a cost-cutting drive in the `1960s.
However, little is expected to happen in the short term as the Department for Transport has said it will not make money available for major rail schemes until 2014.
Don Summers, a retired atomic energy worker from Hawthorne Crescent, Grove, said: “Previous inquiries into this indicate this is more of a wish and the train operators don’t seem very enthusiastic about it. My feeling is that if it made commercial sense, the train operator would have pursued it already.
“Although the local community would love to think we could have our own station and go to London from Grove, I think most commuters doing that journey already live the right side of town to get to Didcot.”
Geoff Chown, of Mayfield Avenue, said: “I don’t think it’s going to happen for some time, if it does at all.”
The county council’s rail development officer Adrian Saunders said: “We haven’t taken a view on the report as such. It only came out last week and we still need to know from Atoc the basis of their assumptions.”
Transport Minister Chris Mole said: “For the longer term, we will work with local authorities who want to improve links to the rail network.”
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Your Say YourOxfordshire
Gunslinger, Abingdon says...
7:55pm Wed 24 Jun 09
Are they expecting to get a half-hourly or hourly regular service to Swindon, Reading and London, or even a direct link to Oxford? More likely just a couple of peak hour services, as is currently 'enjoyed' at other surviving local stations like Appleford and Culham.
LadyPenelope, Oxford says...
8:05pm Wed 24 Jun 09
Gunslinger, Abingdon says...
8:16pm Wed 24 Jun 09
LadyPenelope wrote:Assuming of course that there is a train going where you want to go when you want to go there, and that 'keeping the cost of tickets down'isn't recouped by extortionate car parking charges (as at Didcot) and/or minimal and unattractive facilities (as at Bicester Town)!
Fantastic idea!! Let's just keep the cost of tickets down, and it will become an excellent commuting alternative to the car and bus!
EB, Oxford says...
8:21pm Wed 24 Jun 09
How about reopening the Didcot - Newbury line too...?
Gunslinger, Abingdon says...
9:00pm Wed 24 Jun 09
EB wrote:It currently takes about 45 mins to go from the centre of Wantage to the centre of Oxford by bus. How much quicker or more convenient could/would a train be in practice, assuming it went via Didcot?
Well given that it will be a station for Wantage and Grove, it will have to be good, with a bus service from Wantage. Trains will have to go to Didcot and Oxford, and the slow train from Swindon to Oxford will have to be reintroduced.
How about reopening the Didcot - Newbury line too...?
I suspect not a lot, and that the reasons these lines and stations closed in the 1960's have not really chaged that much.
Andrew:Oxford, Oxford says...
9:15pm Wed 24 Jun 09
Just imagine the A40/Peartree if there were a swift, reliable and regular service between Witney, Oxford and beyond (say Abingdon?).
HughdeGree, HughdeGree says...
7:25am Thu 25 Jun 09
Currently there isn't even a bus from Witney to Swindon!
The Witney line was only closed in the mid 1970's (not Beeching).
Fat boy, Witney says...
9:44am Thu 25 Jun 09
Peat, Littlemore says...
9:50am Thu 25 Jun 09
olfar, didcot says...
10:16am Thu 25 Jun 09
RICHYRICH09, WANTAGE says...
10:25am Thu 25 Jun 09
EB, Oxford says...
10:14pm Thu 25 Jun 09
dgriffin959, Oxford says...
11:02am Fri 26 Jun 09
Come on Chris Walker dont take us all for fools - get out and ask some real people their views instead of phoning the same old people for the same old views...
1 from Grove, Grove says...
9:11pm Fri 26 Jun 09
They keep taking away what the residents need and give more of what we dont!
Hugh Jaeger, Oxford says...
11:04am Fri 10 Jul 09
Gunslinger wrote:Yes Gunslinger, an hourly or half-hourly Swindon - Reading - London service is exactly what Grove would get. Swindon Borough wants a Parkway station on the north side of Swindon on the line towards Kemble. That would be the terminus for the new service, which would also stop at Grove.
I think it needs to be made a bit clearer what people would be getting for spending £4m of our money on a new station at Grove. Are they expecting to get a half-hourly or hourly regular service to Swindon, Reading and London, or even a direct link to Oxford? More likely just a couple of peak hour services, as is currently 'enjoyed' at other surviving local stations like Appleford and Culham.
It's the train operators, including First Great Western, who are now proposing Grove station. Their research says its benefits would oughtweigh its costs by four to one.
The train operators wouldn't suggest Grove station if they planned to give it an infrequent peak-hour only service. Grove and Wantage have 17,500 residents; not a few hundred each like Appleford and Culham. There's no similarity.
Don Summers worked for the nuclear industry: a 20th century menace that has had its day and should be decommissioned and relegated to history. Rail is a technology to make 21st century life environmentally-sust
ainable.
Britain has now promised to cut its climate-changing emissions by 80%. We cannot achieve this by expecting every rail user around Grove and Wantage to continue to drive to and from Didcot Parkway. Rail access must be brought closer to as many people as possible.
Hugh Jaeger, Oxford says...
11:50am Fri 10 Jul 09
HughdeGree wrote:No, closure of the Witney Railway did start with Richard Beeching, who in 1962 withdrew all the passenger trains and scrapped the line from Witney to Fairford. Freight trains continued to serve Eynsham until 1965 and Witney until 1970. The track may have remained until the mid-1970's, but it was derelict and carried no trains.
An Oxford to Swindon service via Witney should be considered. That would be far more economical and a very popular route, linking into the East-West rail line. It would also provide a link to other centres like Cambridge instead of all lines leading to London. Currently there isn't even a bus from Witney to Swindon! The Witney line was only closed in the mid 1970's (not Beeching).
The train operating companies' report says the Witney Railway could be rebuilt and reopened for £95 million. If that sounds a lot, what is the daily congestion and pollution on the A40 between Witney and Oxford costing us and our environment? If the DfT, Network Rail, First Great Western, Oxfordshire County and West Oxon District councils clubbed together they could share the cost.
Running the track parallel between the B4449 bypass south of Eynsham would be easy. Removing one or two industrial buildings to reinstate Eynsham station would be neither hard nor unreasonable.
Witney station was on the southern edge of town. The Witney Bypass has been built across the trackbed, preventing re-use of the original site in Station Lane. But the new line could easily parallel the bypass to Ducklington Lane, where it could have a station with bus links all over Witney.
Stopping trains from Paddington and Reading could continue to Witney instead of terminating at Oxford. And the planned Chiltern Evergreen 3 and East West Rail links would connect Witney via Oxford to High Wycombe, Aylesbury, Milton Keynes and Bedford.
Witney has more than doubled its population since its railway was closed. Oxfordshire County Council planned this expansion and West Oxon District Council gave planning permission for thousands of new homes. Neither council planned how to prevent this from bringing many thousands of extra car journeys onto the A40 and other roads.
The developers who have profited hugely from building the homes could have been required to contribute towards the cost of reinstating the Witney Railway. The County and District councils' failure to do this was culpable negligence.
If the Witney Railway were reopened we wouldn't need the Cogges Link Road and we'd save thousands of tonnes of carbon emissions every year.
The station site near Grove
Trains meet at Witney station in the early 1960s
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EB, Oxford says...
7:47pm Wed 24 Jun 09