Bristol-Oxford Direct Service

[whole diary]

[paul7575]

Running East-West Rail as a stopping service from Reading to Bedford/Milton Keynes seems a missed opportunity to me, particularly with Crossrail opening up easier links from Reading via London, so I would love to see a proper East-West Rail service each hour from Bristol to Bedford (then Cambridge) service calling at Bath, Corsham, Chippenham, Wootton Bassett, Swindon, Grove, Didcot Parkway, Oxford, Bicester Town, Winslow, Bletchley and Bedford.

There are proposals to run EWR on both routes though, it definitely isn't a case of Bristol via Swindon or Reading via Didcot being mutually exclusive.

But suppose they ran (as one proposal suggests) Paddington > Heathrow > Reading > Oxford > Bicester > Bletchley > Bedford?  No one would sensibly use that for end to end purposes, but there are loads of intermediate flows that become available.  The connection across Oxford is also to maximise stock efficiency, and avoid blocking platforms.

There's a similar point can be made about the future Chiltern run Marylebone to Milton Keynes service - it could be said that's no use for end to end flows.

Paul

[IndustryInsider]

I quite agree, Paul.  An hourly Bristol to Bedford service and an hourly Reading to Milton Keynes service would be a nice compromise I think - even more so if it came from Paddington via Heathrow when that new link opens.  Two trains per hour to/from Reading would not maximise the potential though.

[grahame]

Running East-West Rail as a stopping service from Reading to Bedford/Milton Keynes seems a missed opportunity to me, particularly with Crossrail opening up easier links from Reading via London, so I would love to see a proper East-West Rail service each hour from Bristol to Bedford (then Cambridge) service calling at Bath, Corsham, Chippenham, Wootton Bassett, Swindon, Grove, Didcot Parkway, Oxford, Bicester Town, Winslow, Bletchley and Bedford.

1. Question ... would you consider stopping at Keynsham, Saltford and Oldfield Park too?   There's the current question of reversing an extra hourly local train at Bath / Batheaston, with various onward options being discussed to save the cost of heavy infrastructure at Batheaston.  The extra stops would slow it, but provide extra loading at one extreme end of the long journey where perhaps there would be capacity.

2. The MPs^▸ (Member of Parliament) suggestion says for the next franchise, starting in 2015. We're not sure how long that will be / whether the thought is for a service even pre-electrification; if so, perhaps the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) could bring these back into service ...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/barang_shkoot/13931057107/in/photostream/
... I know that First brought back some old HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train) that were rather abandoned, after all.

[Lee]

Bear in mind that plans for a Park and Rail station at Bathampton (as opposed to Batheaston which is some way from the railway line) have significantly advanced recently, to the extent that even if you didn't turnback local trains in the vicinity, you would still have to consider the possibility of calling through trains there.

[grahame]

Bear in mind that plans for a Park and Rail station at Bathampton (as opposed to Batheaston which is some way from the railway line) have significantly advanced recently, to the extent that even if you didn't turnback local trains in the vicinity, you would still have to consider the possibility of calling through trains there.

Probably an excellent idea.  Logic would suggest that a park and ride will have excellent road access from the trunk roads in the immediate area - so that's off roads like the A36 and A4, making it (with the Bedford trains) a Parkway station longer journeys as well as something to relieve traffic in Bath.

[CLPGMS]

It turned left at Foxhall Junction, just west of Didcot Parkway, so avoiding the station. As I recall, "consultation" on the closure took place to close it at a time just before it would have cost the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) money - I forget the details.

From what I recall, most of the trains called at Didcot Parkway and then reversed.  A few did use the curve, avoiding the station and this was the main reason for the timing of the service being discontinued.   The "trial" service was introduced in June 1998 as a joint venture between Thames Trains and FGW^▸ (First Great Western), using TT's Turbo units.  Had it lasted 5 years, i.e. beyond June 2003, it would have become "permanent" and would have needed to go through the official closure procedure, being the only scheduled passenger service to use that short stretch of line at Didcot.  So, the last through train ran on Saturday 17th May 2003.  I believe that some of the trains ran to/from Bicester Town.

[Oberon]

The proposed park & ride station would not be situated on the main line towards London, the original station site now being unavailable through track re-modelling in the 1980s. Instead it is planned to be situated on the line heading south towards Westbury.

[ellendune]

Calling at Didcot Parkway means that they could take the path of an existing Didcot Oxford service if that helps capacity

[Lee]

The proposed park & ride station would not be situated on the main line towards London, the original station site now being unavailable through track re-modelling in the 1980s. Instead it is planned to be situated on the line heading south towards Westbury.

It may be that the plans you are referring to have been superseded.

Proposals being circulated locally (I live in the area) by BaNES in Summer 2014 (ie literally a couple a months old) show platforms on both the London and Westbury lines.

[John R]

So taking all the suggestions below we could have
Bristol TM^‡(resolve)
Keynsham
Saltford
Oldfield Park
Bath Spa
Bathampton
Corsham
Royal WB
Swindon
Wantage
Didcot (Reverse)
and then maybe all stations to
Oxford.

I suggest that this would start to look much less attractive as a through service to Milton Keynes and/or Bedford.  So no, I wouldn't call it at stations between Bath and Bristol, which could continue to be serviced by Westbury line trains (and more stock will be available by then if capacity is an issue). Neither would I call at Didcot, since the time penalty would be greater, and there are enough services between Swindon and Didcot and between Didcot and Oxford.

This would admittedly have the disadvantage of making Wantage much less attractive for eastbound journey, so an assessment would need to be made of the impact of this against the time advantage of avoiding Didcot.  

[ellendune]

The Didcot stop allows more expresses to skip Didcot as it provides a Didcot Swindon Local service it is also essential to make best use of Wantage Road.

[Oberon]

No real point in including Saltford, Oldfield Park and Didcot for this service really. Presumably intended traction would be a Turbo unit? But as all of the railway Bristol-Bedford will be under the wires post CP6^▸ (Control Period 6 - The five year period between 2019 and 2024) (assuming the line north from Foxhall Junction is electrified) this could end up being a nippy electric service - and it would need to be very fast indeed to get out of the way of all those Paddington bound expresses on the main line.

[IndustryInsider]

Running East-West Rail as a stopping service from Reading to Bedford/Milton Keynes seems a missed opportunity to me, particularly with Crossrail opening up easier links from Reading via London, so I would love to see a proper East-West Rail service each hour from Bristol to Bedford (then Cambridge) service calling at Bath, Corsham, Chippenham, Wootton Bassett, Swindon, Grove, Didcot Parkway, Oxford, Bicester Town, Winslow, Bletchley and Bedford.

1. Question ... would you consider stopping at Keynsham, Saltford and Oldfield Park too?   There's the current question of reversing an extra hourly local train at Bath / Batheaston, with various onward options being discussed to save the cost of heavy infrastructure at Batheaston.  The extra stops would slow it, but provide extra loading at one extreme end of the long journey where perhaps there would be capacity.

So taking all the suggestions below we could have
Bristol TM^‡(resolve)
Keynsham
Saltford
Oldfield Park
Bath Spa
Bathampton
Corsham
Royal WB
Swindon
Wantage
Didcot (Reverse)
and then maybe all stations to
Oxford.

I suggest that this would start to look much less attractive as a through service to Milton Keynes and/or Bedford.  So no, I wouldn't call it at stations between Bath and Bristol, which could continue to be serviced by Westbury line trains (and more stock will be available by then if capacity is an issue). Neither would I call at Didcot, since the time penalty would be greater, and there are enough services between Swindon and Didcot and between Didcot and Oxford.

This would admittedly have the disadvantage of making Wantage much less attractive for eastbound journey, so an assessment would need to be made of the impact of this against the time advantage of avoiding Didcot.  

Yes, I'm with John R on this one.  No stops between Bristol and Bath, except perhaps the odd peak call as used to occur with the odd Bristol<>Oxford service back in the day.  I'm not so sure about skipping Didcot Parkway though, for three reasons: Grove/Wantage to Reading/London would then become a bit of a trek if you have to change at Oxford; Didcot to Oxford probably deserves at least three trains an hour and that would be one way of providing it; and a  Didcot call might mean one less of the Bristol<>London trains needed to call there (assuming all of the additional Cheltenham<>Paddington trains do).  However to weigh against that there's the time penalty of at least 5 minutes and the layout at Didcot is far from ideal as a train heading from Oxford to Bristol can only use Platform 4 (coming the other way, Platform 3 is also available) - however I'm not sure how much the layout is likely to be altered as I'm still intrigued on how a 10-car SET^▸ (Super Express Train (now IET)) will be accommodated on Platforms 3/4/5.

With the stops I mentioned in the post above, then Bristol to Oxford in 1h 20m would be achievable using 110/125MPH stock.  Bristol to Bedford would be well under 2h 30m - quicker than the fairly torturous route by road.

[anthony215]

Modern railways seems to believe FGW^▸ (First Great Western) are going to get the class 387's which are currently under construction for Thameslink so these should be esier to fit between IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.)'s with their 110mph top speed.

The 90mph class 165/166's should also be avilable for the Transwilts service

[didcotdean]

Oxfordshire County Council has indicated a desire for 4 trains an hour between Didcot and Oxford, some carrying on to Bicester, which ought to be realisable through east/west.

Wantage/Grove to Didcot is the other major transport corridor that they want to develop public transport links on - the current work is mainly through improving buses, but a rail / tram link is the twinkle in Ian Hudspeth's eye (if it isn't grit ...). To be factored in also though is serving Milton Park intermediately.