Bristol-Oxford Direct Service

[whole diary]

[ChrisB]

It would need to be limited (very) stop to attract pax onto the long distance service. No good if its quicker via London... The other stops would need to join their local service & change where necessary

[grahame]

It would need to be limited (very) stop to attract pax onto the long distance service. No good if its quicker via London... The other stops would need to join their local service & change where necessary

Chippenham to Bedford via London - 2 hours and 40 minutes (160 minutes) - from journey planner for tomorrow

Chippenham to Bedford via Didcot and Oxford - 1 hour and 40 minutes (100 minutes) - Journey planner to Oxford and then East / West rail projections.

Even if you add in Royal Wooton Bassett and Wantage stops, I can't see it being slower via London.   And you could save 10 minutes by taking out the reversal at Didcot.

Note that I've taken a worst case example - journeys to Milton Keynes will make a higher proportional gain.   ChrisB - can you give us an example of a journey that would be slowed?

[ChrisB]

Earlier in the thread, there were many other stations listed prior to Oxford....

[TonyK]

It would need to be limited (very) stop to attract pax onto the long distance service. No good if its quicker via London... The other stops would need to join their local service & change where necessary

From Bristol, it would never be quicker via London, nor, I suspect, would it be cheaper. The option to beat is via Didcot. Swindon to Oxford direct would give the train the edge time-wise over the bus. Given the relatively low capacity of the bus, I would imagine that there would be a fair number of car drivers who may look at rail as an alternative to the daily slog and paying some licenced bandit in a car park.

[ChrisB]

Agreed. I suspect quite a flow between those stations

[John R]

I would imagine that there would be a fair number of car drivers who may look at rail as an alternative to the daily slog and paying some licenced bandit in a car park.

Though I don't think Swindon station car park is free, so you're paying for parking either way.

[Oberon]

I suspect this would eventually be a Bristol-Cambridge service given the government's commitment to re-open Bedford-Cambridge. What about timings for that?