Great Western Coffee Shop

I’ve seen a brief mention of this, but very few details from 1 - 22 July.

GWR site just says buses will replace trains on separate days - no idea what that means!

Cross Countty do list a bit more detail - but again not that helpful.

Seems closures between Banbury/hanborough and Oxford/Didcot.

Just trying to plan ahead and the thought of no direct trains from Charlbury to Paddington for three weeks isn’t sounding great

From the Crosscountry site on this, for 7-15 July, plus 21-22 July the closure is between Banbury and Didcot and for 16-20 July it is 'only' Banbury to Oxford. What might happen between 1-6 July in detail remains a mystery. Network rail suggests Banbury to Oxford closed on 1 July, and late night / early morning disruption 2-6 July.

I have a meeting about the PR on these works next Wednesday with GWR. I'll know all the details then, and can post here.

The three weeks will all be different. There is definitely at least one week where all lines are blocked through Oxford, and others where the down platform will become reversible, but whether through trains will be possible, or whether it will be a start/terminate on one platform, not yet known.

That's curious - I'd have expected it to be listed at the https://www.gwr.com/cotswolds2018 address which is currently being publicised.

No different from the other 49 weeks a year then!

There's a brief mention Under Oxford for July. No details yet - I'll try & get these added & listed under Cotswold Line as well at the meeting.

This chart has now appeared at https://www.gwr.com/travel-updates/planned-engineering
(https://i.gyazo.com/e5342235b7bbfba533a2cb0d8f5cab7e.png)

They've managed to restrict this works to two full weeks and 4.5 weekends, saving one week of workdays originally planned

Until it over runs..... right? The weather is getting warmer and we all know there could be some hot rails about (cough....Slough)

Dedicated page now at https://www.gwr.com/travel-updates/planned-engineering/oxford2018

Interesting to see ticket acceptance on a number of local bus services, not just the rail replacement ones and acceptance of certain railway station car park permits at the Oxford P&R.

Can anyone explain to me why the Didcot Parkway to Oxford line is shown as open on 1st and 16th-20th July? When you go to the 'yellow' symbol it says that there are no trains between Didcot Parkway and Oxford. As a passenger that line is not open and should therefore be displayed red. If there are trains between Paddington/Reading and Oxford then that should be shown on separate rows.

If on those dates services are able to run between Reading and Oxford is there any good reason why they can't also stop at Didcot Parkway? Unless of course there is work going on between Didcot North Junction and Didcot Parkway, and there is currently no evidence of that on the ground.

 

There seems no concern that the Oxford-Didcot flow is being dented already by the poor quality shuttle service, and this directly puts them potentially into the arms of Thames Travel. Go-Ahead's revenge perhaps. Interesting that there will be a night bus service between Oxford-Didcot on Fridays and Saturdays from June.

How do you determine whether there is concern or not?

Of course I can't know with any certainty, but any business ought to be aware that perceptions, even if incorrect can be damaging.

Of course there ought to be such concerns, but what can they do about it. Their biggest customer* (DfT) who calls all the shots and without whom they have no business at all tells them to do it. They have no choice. There is not point making a fuss and upsetting the customer.

* Of course we ought to be the customer but we are just pawns in DfT's games

I think the question is whether the choice of stopping Oxford to Paddington trains in Didcot during these engineering works on the days these are running would be down to GWR or not, unless as has been already been said that there is some component of this work which technically prevents it. After all some of these services would normally call at Didcot. There might well be, since the capacity has been limited etc.

I'm confused with the information given on GWR's website about the engineering work next week/week after - as it seems to imply there'll be 3 replacement bus services

1 - Hanborough - Oxford Parkway
2 - Hanborough - DIdcot Parkway
3 - Moreton in Marsh - Oxford Parkway

However, when looking at times online, it seems only 1 and 2 are viable.  I know they need to do the work - but going from Kingham (and reliant on the bus service from Bourton) - there's not a 623 equivalent in the morning - just 5.55 and 7.26 - you'd have though they'd have made the trains every hr, not every 1 1/2 or so - especially at peak time. 

Looking at the website it doesn't mention Moreton to Oxford Parkway.

Buses only operate from Moreton at weekends, to Didcot and Oxford (Main)

Yep - Only buses from Moreton at weekends - otherwise all from Hanborough

I was looking at the Oxford page and I'm really struggling to understand the impact on my trains in Twyford. I had a similar problem with the Newbury work which meant trying to work out where trains might have started and if they were fast or slow etc

I have no idea if my regular train is going to turn up over the next couple of weeks. Guess I need to check the Journey Planner for the rest of the month. Pity its very clunky for those casual enquiries.

The National Rail app is very good for that sort of lookup

 Thanks Chris that was a much better experience.

According to Network rail all my trains are running (ignoring more than usual repairs/less that usual crews). Seems to contradict the information on the GWR site but I shall travel in hope.

Those starting in Didcot are unaffected....

You can always try Real Time Trains for your departure station.

If you click on the train number eg 1A25 it will give you the schedule and in the top right block if it has been activated which means the train is running barring unforeseen circumstances.

For instance today 4th 1P25 0954 Great Malvern to London Paddington normally  due Kinghamm 11:01 is cancelled.