Cotswold Line redoubling: 2008 - 2011

[whole diary]

[paul7575]

There is a complex document available on the ORR^» (Office of Rail and Road formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about) website, dissecting the CP4^▸ (Control Period 4 - the five year period between 2009 and 2014) enhancements package costs. In the project known as 'Southern region platform lengthening, that covers hundreds of stations of different existing designs, they come up with an average figure of ^5000 per metre run. Now this would normally include no extra passenger facilities such as PIS^▸ (Passenger Information System) displays, PA^▸ (Public Address), seating, buildings, canopies, as they are talking about increases from say 10 - 12 car capability, tacked on the end of otherwise operational platforms.

So I'd suggest about ^100,000 per 20m coach length for a basic extension - assuming there was an existing basic station, and the lengthening didn't get into requirements for signalling or track changes at all...

Paul

[ChrisB]

It won't cost the earth

Really, so what do people think it will cost to lengthen each of the platforms at Shipton, Ascott-Under-Wychwood, Finstock and Combe?

There's your answer, and I think I'm right. It won't cost the earth....

[Btline]

The only one of the halts where it is worth spending money to lengthen is Shipton. Ascott is so near to Shipton, there is little point in wasting the money - just axe it. As for Finstock and Combe - I say, shut one to "save" the other. But I can hardly see any point in spending money to lengthen platforms. As for ^5000 per metre - how can it cost that much to bung up some concrete?

[IndustryInsider]

As for ^5000 per metre - how can it cost that much to bung up some concrete?

Good question!

[inspector_blakey]

I'm no builder, but I'm pretty sure I could do quite a respectable bodge and make a handsome profit for GBP5000 a metre...

[devon_metro]

I'm no builder, but I'm pretty sure I could do quite a respectable bodge and make a handsome profit for GBP5000 a metre...

Presumably then the concrete won't set in time for job completion?

(rather like the M4 near Bristol this morning!!)

[willc]

The only one of the halts where it is worth spending money to lengthen is Shipton. Ascott is so near to Shipton, there is little point in wasting the money - just axe it. As for Finstock and Combe - I say, shut one to "save" the other.

Fortunately the railway industry is a bit more sensitive to the situation than you are. The Wychwoods stations may be near one another, but they serve quite separate communities, which was why the OWW^▸ (Oxford Worcester and Wolverhampton) opened two stations in the first place in 1853 and why they both survived closure attempts in the late 1960s and why Ascott will get a new platform and hopefully an extension to the existing one in the near future.

How does shutting one halt save the other? They are nowhere near each other and serve communities several miles apart on different sides of the Evenlode valley.

[Btline]

How does shutting one halt save the other? They are nowhere near each other and serve communities several miles apart on different sides of the Evenlode valley.

Because you can use the money saved by shutting one to invest in the other (more parking, longer platforms, etc) which encourages use of the other one, thus saving it.

I don't know the locality, but on a map and when travelling on the train, the stations are VERY close to each other.

Remember that these halts by all rights shouldn't be here. Only marginal constituency politics prevented their closure - same reason the Heart of Wales line lingers on.

[inspector_blakey]

Further to willc's argument, do you really think that a great deal of money will be saved by shutting down some tiny p*ssbox halt with a tiddly little platform and nothing in the way of facilities? I can't see it opening up a flood of money to invest in anywhere else.

[willc]

I don't know the locality

Says it all really. Maybe you could trust those of us who do. After all, we did manage to persuade you as to why everything should stop at Charlbury.

A modest, sensibly timetabled and properly marketed increase in services at the Wychwoods stations will bump up passenger numbers. Combe and Finstock will just potter along until, hopefully, further redoubling forces the rail industry and politicians to bite the bullet.

There is a good prospect of more Wychwoods services soon, but these need to be at times that people are likely to want to travel, not just at times that suit FGW^▸ (First Great Western)'s operating department. Putting on a train at a not very customer-friendly hour, like the short-lived just-after-6am Shipton call by the first London train, and just hoping someone might turn up to use it is not what I mean.

[Mookiemoo]

As I see it - surely the best thing for the wychwoods and combe and finstock is to have good connections to oxford.


To bastardize the fugitive - every dog house, out house, hen house and pent house etc etc should not have a direct service to London - what they SHOULD have is a decent connect to somewhere that does.

If they ever start stopping the peak herefords at the shacks because they are direct to london, I WILL pay the extra money to go via newport.

 

[IndustryInsider]

I think that's exactly the plan.  More Moreton to Oxford/Didcot shuttles with the re-doubling opening up the flexibility to stop some of them at Ascott and Shipton.  No real chance of any HST^▸ (High Speed Train) weekday calls at Ascott, in my opinion, and the shuttles might allow the odd Shipton and Hanborough stops to be removed from the faster trains - though not all of them I'm suspect.  FGW^▸ (First Great Western) don't really want to be stopping HST's at the smaller stations, but at the moment they are pretty much forced to as their is no room for any other trains.

If Ascott and Shipton have 3-car length platforms then that allows the Turbo fleet to be fully flexible - the extension work that would be required at Ascott (only 10 metres) means it would not cost the earth, even at extortionate railway prices!

[willc]

No-one's suggesting stopping the weekday peak Herefords.

What is likely to emerge is a better spread of stops through the day, instead of Ascott's current one out and one back service and the lopsided erratic offering at Shipton, opening up opportunities to use the train for people who aren't just doing an 8.30-5 day in Oxford, such as shopping, lunch, an evening out with the car left at home, or even an off-peak trip all the way to London and back if some services from and to Moreton are combined with Oxford-London services.

[stebbo]

Thank you Fallen Angel.

Even though I now live in Gloucestershire and therefore use the Cotswold Line from Evesham when I have to go to London, I will resort to the Cheltenham trains if the morning and evening HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) stop at the halts. (I did this for a while after moving from Herefordshire but then discovered that it's cheaper and quicker from Evesham).

I've said it before - and I'll say it again, despite the view being unpopular - that the morning and evening HSTs should miss out Honeybourne and Long Hanborough (and possibly Pershore) and go back to a fast service for those needing to get to London. 

[Btline]

I've said it before - and I'll say it again, despite the view being unpopular - that the morning and evening HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) should miss out Honeybourne and Long Hanborough (and possibly Pershore) and go back to a fast service for those needing to get to London. 

Precisely. Surely one fast peak in each direction is not too much to ask! If the shuttles start, there should be NO halts calls (and reduced Hanborough calls) on HSTs,  except possibly to allow for a day trip to the capital direct.