Demand that improving Oxford to Didcot line 'should be priority'

[whole diary]

[didcotdean]

'Demand' made by the England’s Economic Heartland (EEH) - an umbrella body of various local authorities from Oxfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Milton Keynes, Northamptonshire, Hertfordshire and Swindon in their reply to the Great Western Rail Franchise.

Newspaper article here

Copy of response here.

England’s Economic Heartland has already identified the need to address capacity constraints on the Didcot to Oxford section of the rail network.  In addition it has identified the opportunity created by the delivery of EWR to review the operation of local rail services.
 This should also be used as the opportunity to consider the potential to restore direct rail links between Swindon and the wider Heartland area.  Opportunities to improve or restore rail connectivity with other communities to the west of Didcot should also be explored as part of that conversation.
Priority should be given to making a requirement for ... co-ordination at Oxford Station and at Didcot Parkway.  The latter is a key rail-head for a number of important locations in the southern half of Oxfordshire, in particular Wallingford, Wantage, Abingdon, Milton Park and Harwell.

[ChrisB]

Well, they should be aware of the required funding requirements from their LEPs^» (Local Enterprise Partnership - about)....

[ray951]

They could make a simple start by restoring all services to 3 carriages; since the start of the year most services (80%?) have been formed of 2 carriage units.
I am not sure where all the 3 carriage turbo's have gone but there are a lot of disgruntled commuters between those 2 locations; particularly as a lot of us received letters from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) publicising lots of extra seats from January. It is particularly galling seeing all the almost empty 8 carriage trains on the stopping service to Reading and Paddington; Didcot to Oxford has more commuters than on the stopping service to Reading.

As well as the reduction in seats, the reliability and performance has also taken a dive. I thought that having a simple Oxford - Didcot shuttle  and disconnecting the service from the rest of the Thames Valley would improve performance but how wrong I was.

[ChrisB]

It is particularly galling seeing all the almost empty 8 carriage trains on the stopping service to Reading and Paddington; Didcot to Oxford has more commuters than on the stopping service to Reading.

But not Reading to Paddington which is where those actually terminate But otherwise, I sympathise wholeheartedly

[didcotdean]

I went to Reading yesterday in the early evening and with the train I had intended to catch from Didcot being late caught up in the Bristol Parkway problems the next was the 17:29, which is an OXF^» (Oxford - next trains)-RDG^‡(resolve) stopper. The 2 carriage 165 arrived completely packed and took ages to disgorge all its passengers. Not many were left in there, but there was quite a stink of stale sweat remaining. Hate to think what this will be like in the summer. A 387 does DID^» (Didcot Parkway - next trains)-PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) only 6 minutes later.

I note that in the newspaper article one person indicates he will switch to the bus when his season runs out; I have heard someone else say the same.

[grahame]

They could make a simple start by restoring all services to 3 carriages; since the start of the year most services (80%?) have been formed of 2 carriage units.

Any way to better use the stock? 15 to 17 minute run time leads to a very inefficient use of stock for Didcot - Oxford shuttles. I'm sure this was carefully considered before electrification was cut back to Didcot. 30 minutes run time Oxford to Banbury local also a bit of a downer on efficiency. Other local problems include Swindon to Oxford journeys with appalling connections at Didcot, and problems of an hourly TransWilts into Swindon giving mahooosive turn around times / stock wastage there in order to avoid trains timetabled to pass each other on the single line between Chippenham and  Trowbridge. With some joining up, trains can have less lay-over time and be running longer, carrying more passengers.  So some of the three cars now based at St Phillip Marsh run to Oxford, and the 1 x 2 car second train per hour becomes 1 x 2+2 car. Elephant in the room?   The Swindon to Oxford service will build up such traffic that all the extra capacity you want back from that third carriage will already be full as the train comes into Didcot from Swindon!

[ChrisB]

NR^» (Network Rail - home page) won't currently allow any additional traffic between Didcot & Swindon owing to lack of paths. And I think EWR have first dibs if any work is done to alleviate that.

Isn't moving ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock) from St Phillips Marsh to Didcot a waste of resources though?

[grahame]

NR^» (Network Rail - home page) won't currently allow any additional traffic between Didcot & Swindon owing to lack of paths. And I think EWR have first dibs if any work is done to alleviate that.

Isn't moving ECS^▸ (Empty Coaching Stock) from St Phillips Marsh to Didcot a waste of resources though?

EWR being East - West Rail?  We'll need to look at the onward timing to Milton Keynes or Bedford them.

Yes, "moving ECS from St Phillips Marsh to Didcot" would be a waste of resources and it's not part of the suggestion. I probably need to clarify the idea with a diagram of hourly patterns.

[didcotdean]

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) has undertaken to see whether there is any possibility of stopping one or more peak hour PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains)-OXF^» (Oxford - next trains) fasts additionally at DID^» (Didcot Parkway - next trains) for capacity. In principle this is not unreasonable as some other of these services do have one. However, with all the shuttling and turning round now at Didcot there may be practical reasons this can't be done at the required time, notwithstanding consideration of the slowing down of services for others etc.

[lordgoata]

If the 0651 from Goring (0641 starting at Didcot) was the 8-carriage EMU^▸ (Electric Multiple Unit) that is supposed to be, rather than the 4-carriage turbo that it has been since January, then there would be another 4 carriages that could be added to the OXF^» (Oxford - next trains)-DID^» (Didcot Parkway - next trains) shuttles....

[ChrisB]

As we already are aware, turbos are substituting in several places for their intended stock - hopefully once all the IETs^▸ (Intercity Express Train) are in place, they'll all return to their allocated services - including these

[ray951]

Going back to my original comment I am not asking for extra services I would just like the existing trains to be formed of 3 carriages as there were before September last year.
GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) hasn't lost any 165/166 so I would like them to explain why they have decided to downgrade these services, somebody at GWR must have taken that decision. I would also like to know when this will be rectified.

I appreciate that they have lost other trains and I assume that some of those services are now worked by 3 carriage 165/166, but presumably some of those could have been replaced by a 2 carriage 165 without being a downgrade.

Maybe we will get an increase when the next set of class 800 and 802 arrive and 165/166 can be removed from the Cotswold line, but like software, all the stuff you want is always in the next release

[ellendune]

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) hasn't lost any 165/166 so I would like them to explain why they have decided to downgrade these services, somebody at GWR must have taken that decision. I would also like to know when this will be rectified.

I think you are correct that GWR hasn't lost any 165/166 unit, but unfortunately it has lost some 15x units which have been sent elsewhere and the 165/166 are having to cover these services as well. 

[ChrisB]

And those units cover a distance well in excess of Oxford-Didcot (even Oxford-Reading), so understandable why they've gone....

[grahame]

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) hasn't lost any 165/166 so I would like them to explain why they have decided to downgrade these services, somebody at GWR must have taken that decision. I would also like to know when this will be rectified.

I think you are correct that GWR hasn't lost any 165/166 unit, but unfortunately it has lost some 15x units which have been sent elsewhere and the 165/166 are having to cover these services as well. 

Indeed. GWR has lost virtually all (all within a very short time) of the 150/1 units - I think there might have been a dozen of them or so, and the 5 remaining 180s, and a number of HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train).  In very rough terms around 100 passenger carriages which can run off the electric.   Gained so far are (?) how many 800s, and the ability to grab trains off the Paddington to Didcot route.

Edit to add ... 15 x 150/1 at the start of December 2017 now (March) down to just 4 ... and they head out soon / may have done so already if my data feed is a bit laggy