Network Rail saying the Botley Road bridge will not reopen this winter.

NR^» (Network Rail - home page) said "This project is extremely complex and has been made even more challenging by the extent of the brick arch underneath the road. We’ve explored a number of options to deliver the works which included moving to working around the clock, but unfortunately with needing the infrastructure to be ready by the end of next year we have no choice but to keep the road closed until October 2024. "

https://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/network-rail-announces-continuation-of-botley-road-closure-after-unique-challenges-delayed-the-work-this-summer

Only the original twitter link https://twitter.com/OxfordClarion/status/1700048212499812419

There updates have been pretty reliable in the past.

According to the Oxford Clarion GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) is halving the number of Oxford to Didcot Services this December.
The service will be hourly for most of the day except at peak times.

It does go on to say that extra Didcot stops are being added to express services to compensate, but that is presumably of no value to passengers from Appleford, Culham and Radley.

Since electrification was cancelled this service has gone backwards, from 3  car trains to 2 car trains and now less trains.

Of course we know this is because GWR doesn't have enough trains, but I am still gob smacked.

Would be interested to know how much tax, and what tax, is paid on fuel by rail, it is also fair to note that air travel tickets are taxed (APD^▸ (Air Passenger Duty)) and train tickets aren't.

Without wishing to go off topic RDG^‡(resolve) said this in 2020 "This is in contrast to levies on electricity used to power trains more than doubling in the past four years, according to the RDG, which said taxes now make up 40% of total electricity costs for operators", anybody any idea what these taxes/levies are?

If that was the case why scrap the Travelcard?

Also it is much harder if travelling as a family, as you get 4 paper cards one each. How do you replicate that with 2 adults and 2 children, do I need 4 debit/credit cards?

Form Didcot an off-peak return to Paddington is £37.40 and Travelcard is £39.20 - £1.80 difference that won't get many tube/bus journeys.
And if you have a railcard the difference is £1.20.

So can you please tell me how I am not going to be worse off?

To no great surprise the Mayor of London says that One Day Travelcards are to be scrapped, apparently Londoners are subsidising the rest of us to the tune of £40m a year.

So ticket office closing, travelcards scraped, wifi and on-board food going/gone, never ending strikes, what is the point of going by train?

What happened to net-zero and the need to reduce our CO2 usage, I guess we will have to go everywhere by electric car.

Rant over 

You also need to consider that not all stations have ticket offices, and those that do the office is rarely open all day so quite often it isn't actually possible to buy from a t/o.

Sorry I dont know the original source for this data and I guess it is quite possible that it came from the same s/s as posted by II.

I have just seen the following posted online:
Staff redundancies at the following stations:
Oxford - 22
Didcot - 10
Reading - 40
Paddington - 50.

If that is just ticket office staff then can I assume (given 2 shifts a day) that all t/o staff at those stations are being made redundant?

In which case who will be helping passengers buy tickets? Presumably cheaper and less knowledgeable ( about tickets) staff.

Sorry making a lot of assumptions, does anybody have the actual facts?

Given that Bristol TM^‡(resolve), Paddington, Reading, Oxford have no ticket offices beyond Decemeber 2024, does that mean that there will be no ticket offices on GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) from that date?

Proposals for GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) stations can be found here https://www.gwr.com/haveyoursay

A quick glance at my local station Didcot Parkway

Sales through ticket office 25%
Sales through TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) 7%
Sales online 67%

Looking at those figures I would suggest that the public wants to use ticket offices and that it is TVM's that are not required and therefore should be closed down.:-)

So is the 12% figure disingenuous in that it includes stations with no ticket offices, I wonder what the percentage of tickets sales is at stations with ticket offices?

12% is still a lot of tickets and revenue, has anybody asked these passengers why they don't use online or ticket machines?

And I would hazard a guess that some of them will never use online or ticket machines so are the railways prepared to lose more revenue? and will that revenue be greater than any 'cost saving'?

This would also mean that you could no longer buy a ticket with cash, what about children and others who don't have a debit card?

6. Woolston. Caught many a train from there.

It was Albert Einstein, apparently, who said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

The RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers) TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) strikes have been going on for a year now and don't seem to be any closer to resolution, so by voting for more strikes what are the union and their members expecting to change?

It appears that the Government don't care about the railways and are just ignoring the unions and passengers just shrug their shoulders and make alternative arrangements, which may include not travelling by train again.

So is there anything that the RMT and ASLEF^» (Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen - about) could do to change this situation?

Maybe an all-out strike would work, although I have been doubts given the lack of interest from the Government who would probably just use it as an excuse to close the railways down (or at least some of it) , or should they just cut their losses and accept what they have been offered?

Good news an empty coaching stock train ran from Oxford to Oxford via Didcot across Nuneham bridge this evening
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:66637/2023-06-08/detailed

And there are also services in the real time trains for tomorrow across the bridge.

If the bridge is now open, congratulations to all the NR^» (Network Rail - home page) staff and contractors for delivering on time, I for one will be glad to get back on the train and avoid travelling on the A34.