One solution would be- all trains terminate at Shrub Hill and Oxford, then more trains could pass in the middle of the double track loop (it would also be a better use for stock).
We've already had this discussion in another thread. Shuttle equals two/three-car
DMU▸ , as it always did up to 1993. If
FGW▸ was keeping the Adelantes, they wouldn't be pottering up and down the Cotswold Line all day.
The only remaining working starting at Oxford, the 17.31 halts train, has suffered a series of delays recently due to late arrival of the connecting service from London. And when an off-peak working was due to terminate at Oxford at noon (until December 2006?), the 12.05pm to London was often dispatched on the dot, even as passengers off a slightly delayed Cotswold Line train were walking down platform 1 towards it. I recall that the
CLPG» intervened after a series of such incidents and got a pledge that this would not happen again.
Yes, punctuality is dismal at times, but breaking the journey at Oxford won't fix it. I'd rather be on a late-running through train than get stuck there for an hour or more and I suspect the bulk of off-peak tickets sold on the line are for journeys going beyond Oxford, so making everyone change trains would do even more damage to passenger numbers.
