Chris Bates from the Cherwell Rail Users' Group warned of a lack of capacity during the second week.
"No one knows how many people will travel," he said.
"I have a lot of sympathy for Chiltern, but I don't think enough contingency has been put in place to persuade people not to swamp the Marylebone route."
I don't think ChrisB's prediction came to pass in the end. I didn't get to use Marylebone myself over the two week blockade but haven't seen any negative stories in the press and a friend made four trips on rush hour trains during the blockade and reports that she easily got a seat on each occasion and that the trains were not much busier than usual - indeed on one trip she had a carriage largely to herself.
Regarding the other blockade arrangements, I've had chance to witness operations at Didcot, Oxford and Hanborough first hand and I must say I've rarely seen such an well organised set-up for engineering work. At Didcot and Oxford clearly labelled bus stops were plentiful and proper loudspeaker systems had been installed at both locations. There were also an abundance of staff everywhere - the usual gateline staff being used and backed up by plenty of agency staff, who (despite initially lacking detailed knowledge of the rail system) were friendly, helpful and soon picked up on what was going on. The use of Hanborough to Didcot buses (for the first time that I can remember) helped relieve Oxford of most travellers from the Cotwolds to London and was quicker than risking the roads into Oxford station.
The only obvious negative I could see was the distance from Oxford station to the bus loading point at the far end of the car park, but with the short stay car park closed for Chiltern's work and the number of buses circulating the area it was the nearest realistic option that could have been chosen. Fortunately the weather has been good, but there was a large container full of umbrellas on standby in case it was raining as shelter was at a premium.
I'm sure there was the odd horror story and negative impression given the length of the works and the fact that nobody likes a rail replacement bus, but hats off to those responsible for organising and operating the revised service - just shows that we can do a really good job dealing with
planned service alterations even if our ability to deal with unplanned ones still leaves a lot to be desired!
Hopefully the work at Hinksey will complete on time for a normal service resumption on Monday. It looked like everything was progressing nicely when I swung by the site on Tuesday:
