Campaign to reopen Didcot to Southampton railway

[whole diary]

[paul7575]

Another 'solution without a problem'.   

At the risk of sounding like a stuck record, as mentioned on the previous page, NR^» (Network Rail - home page) already have published achievable plans to cope with freight increases to Southampton, including operating some trains via Salisbury and Andover in the medium term, and in the longer term some via Salisbury, Westbury and Melksham.

This re-opening has absolutely no chance of happening IMHO^▸ (in my humble opinion) - joining the SWML^▸ (South Western Mail Line) at Winchester would just put more trains down the 2 track bottleneck that is Winchester station itself, because the route via Winchester Chesil is no longer available thanks to the A34 and the M3, that's even if they could ever get round Newbury...

Paul

[TonyK]

...the mood at the meeting was generally supportive.

There were fifteen people there, and they were generally supportive...

I agree - unless they were 15 engineers, transport experts, Southampton dock directors and folks of that ill, it hardly augurs well. The cause will not have been advanced.

Building alongside the A34 may be feasible - Manchester's excellent Metrolink extension to the airport, soon to open over a year early, follows a motorway for part of its length. So it is worth these enthusiasts, these few, this band of brothers, working up plans. Given the learned comments on these pages, though, their efforts may serve only to show that cheaper alternatives are available. The problem is capacity for freight from a growing Southampton port, not enabling a few passengers to travel from Oxford to Winchester without passing through Basingstoke.

Electrification between Bristol Parkway and Birmingham will surely come one day. It may have no effect on this argument, though.

[grahame]

6 years since there was last a post in this thread ... though I think the idea isn't as absurd as it once was with even increasing traffic (until last month anyway) until last month from Southampton to The North.

From my 1960 timetable ...

[bobm]

Just to note Rex Hora, the spokesman for the Didcot, Newbury & Southampton Railway Revival group, quoted in the earlier newspaper article died last November.

[CyclingSid]

Just to note, that as Marlburian has noted elsewhere W Berks Council is supporting the section north of Newbury becoming a cycle/footpath.

[Reading General]

When I discovered this line in the mid to late 80's, as there was so much infrastructure including complete stations left, I though it would have made a wonderful heritage line akin to the watercress line, at least from Didcot to Compton. However, as I delved a little deeper, key parts in the settlements, including the trackbed at Hampstead Norreys (Norris to the railway), had been obliterated to the point it was difficult to see where the line went. Beyond settlements, the trackbed was pretty much complete, which reinforced the belief that it could reopen. Over time, more and more of the line has been built on, cuttings filled in with rubbish and bridges removed to the point that it is difficult to believe that a railway was ever there. Nevertheless, there is still plenty to see and plenty of trackbed and bridges and this is why I would support a complete cycleway from Didcot to Newbury. The Diddy to the first station south, Upton and Blewbury, is already a fantastic tarmac cycle path that runs high up on an embankment in places that gives an insight as to what riding on a train along that stretch was like. The new section of path from Hampstead Norreys to Hermitage is open and already proving quite popular. So just a few gaps to fill in if you can get people living next to the trackbed onside. I've roughly done the line on foot between Didcot and Newbury but it would be nice to be able to do it as close as possibly to the former permanent way.

[ellendune]

I remember the level crossing gates on the A417 at Upton in the 1960's and 70's

[eightf48544]

My paternal Grandmother met my grandfather at West Woody House when he was convalescing during WW!. After WW2 she lived in Southampton and used to tell me about taking the DNS^▸ (Domain name service)  to Woodhay to visit old friends. i also recall seeing City of Truro at Eastleigh on a DNS train. When it had it's spell working from Didcot

[IndustryInsider]

From my 1960 timetable ...

A sensible commuting option from Didcot to Newbury arriving at 08:21 and departing at 17:45.  Oh, no, hang on - the 17:45 only runs on Saturdays!

[Reading General]

What sort of service would we see today if the line between Didcot and Newbury remained? An hourly service with a passing place at Hampstead Norreys (Norris)? This could be an extension of the Reading to Newbury stopping service reversing at Newbury. I would think there wouldn't be through running at Didcot to avoid crossing the main line.

[grahame]

What sort of service would we see today if the line between Didcot and Newbury remained? An hourly service with a passing place at Hampstead Norreys (Norris)? This could be an extension of the Reading to Newbury stopping service reversing at Newbury. I would think there wouldn't be through running at Didcot to avoid crossing the main line.

I doubt it would be an extension of Reading to Newbury as that's electric.  We've already seen that the official verdict on extending electrification to Bedwyn was "not worth it" and even extending from Didcot to Oxford was halted.  Perhaps Hanborough to Bedwyn.  Not sure how you would avoid crossing or at least joining the main line at Didcot  - no bay at the south side and I suspect not space for one.

I don't think the DN&S ever had commuting options, did it?  I suspect it was always a think service.
 

[Reading General]

There was a bay at Didcot which would have been retained I guess. Had the line survived we probably wouldn't have seen much interaction with any junctions with it at Didcot, except for perhaps stock movements. Commuting to London in particular wouldn't have seen much unless you had a reversing DMU^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit) at either end but possibly Hermitage and Upton could have seen some with passengers changing at Newbury or Didcot respectively. A through train from Reading possibly would have helped passenger traffic develop in the British Rail/Network SouthEast days if the DMU stopper had reversed at Newbury but, like you say, that would have been severed upon electrification. Nevertheless if it had ridden out those days it could have reshaped the Newbury or Didcot of today and Hermitage would probably be a much larger village.

[didcotdean]

The railway alignment in Didcot itself was used for much of Hitchcock Way which forms the main E-W route on to the east of the town. The place where the railway used to cross Broadway is more or less exactly at the Jubilee Roundabout (Aldi), which reveals itself the rough date of construction as 1977 (the development of houses built to the south of this have the roads named after Royal houses and palaces). The cycleway starts the other side of Broadway. There was actually a short siding off the mainline just before the DN&S split; the name of the industrial estate there now preserves the name of Rich's Sidings.

[ellendune]

The problem with the DN&S is that it was never treated as a trunk route (except for a short time in the mid 1940's).  It should have been the through route for the Midlands and Northern traffic to Southampton, but that was always, as now, routed through Reading and Basingstoke. 

The GCR^» (Gloucester - next trains) tried running through that way, but did not want to upset the L&SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) so carried on with the route through Reading which gave the L&SWR more of the traffic. 

As a local passenger or goods service it struggled to pay its way, yet it had so much more potential. 

[Reading General]

I'm reading one of the books about it now and it appears it was even stifled in the British Rail years. There was never much attempt to encourage more passenger journeys.