Black Bridge, Nuneham: southern abutment failure

[whole diary]

[Electric train]

How do you pile into the bed of a river anyway? It may be closed, but the water is still there, and I've seen no mention of a coffer dam. In this case, would you use very long piles (joined if need be) so the tops are above water - and have to cut them down to free the river for reopening? Or would you drive the piles flush with the river bed, using a suitable piling hammer (which I see are standard pieces of kit), and bolt on the trestle underwater?
 

Putting them in is perhaps not a problem the river bed and clay will seal the pile ............... I would think its the pulling them out and leaving a space where the pile wall was   

Although the water table will be quite high and the space will soon seal by collapsing .................. or just bank them all the way home when finished with

[ChrisB]

Paul Clifton’s piece for Rail magazine has a very intresting snippet.

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) tell him that since the pandemic, there are just 112 season ticket holders from Oxford. And around just 1,500 peak passengers on most days.

[Mark A]

That's surprising, thanks for this.

Looking up the cost on Trainline*, for an annual season ticket, Oxford to London Terminals, any permitted route, that's currently £6096 to Paddington, or somewhat under £17 per day (both the cost and the daily rate might also surprise many people). Add a zone 1-6 travelcard and the price goes up by around £1000.

Speaking with someone who lives there, the Oxford Tube does commuter heavy lifting, especially given the geography of the city, and with an annual pass coming in at £1395.

Mark

*National Rail's season ticket calculator is currently horked.

[didcotdean]

Plus some of those season ticket holders will have always been travelling from Didcot as the season from there is the same price so you might as well get the Oxford one for the wider validity.

The question might be how many or few of those are first class. Southeastern justified in part dropping first class as they only had 28 first class seasons across their whole network.

[ChrisB]

So most if not all Didvmcot season holders would hold an Oxford season according to your suggestion. Ther’s still only 112?if these in *total*

[Oxonhutch]

Is there a season cheaper via High Wycombe only? If so, I imagine there are a lot more OXF^» (Oxford - next trains)-LON seasons.

[grahame]

Is there a season cheaper via High Wycombe only? If so, I imagine there are a lot more OXF^» (Oxford - next trains)-LON seasons.

According to BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) Fares, no ... virtually everything is "any permitted". I suspect there may have been some sort of agreement as Chiltern were allowed to enter Oxford that they would not undercut GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)?

[ellendune]

Is there a season cheaper via High Wycombe only? If so, I imagine there are a lot more OXF^» (Oxford - next trains)-LON seasons.

According to BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) Fares, no ... virtually everything is "any permitted". I suspect there may have been some sort of agreement as Chiltern were allowed to enter Oxford that they would not undercut GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)?

Wouldn't that be illegal as anti-competitive behaviour.  I thought the whole idea of competing services was to introduce competition!

[ellendune]

Paul Clifton’s piece for Rail magazine has a very intresting snippet.

GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) tell him that since the pandemic, there are just 112 season ticket holders from Oxford. And around just 1,500 peak passengers on most days.

Could that be because longer distance commuters are much less likely to go into the office 5 days a week. 

[grahame]

Is there a season cheaper via High Wycombe only? If so, I imagine there are a lot more OXF^» (Oxford - next trains)-LON seasons.

According to BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) Fares, no ... virtually everything is "any permitted". I suspect there may have been some sort of agreement as Chiltern were allowed to enter Oxford that they would not undercut GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)?

Wouldn't that be illegal as anti-competitive behaviour.  I thought the whole idea of competing services was to introduce competition!

Indeed ... but then isn't the idea of regulated fares to ... well, interfere with aspects of competition, and I suspect that many of the fares available are regulated.

[Hafren]

Is there a season cheaper via High Wycombe only? If so, I imagine there are a lot more OXF^» (Oxford - next trains)-LON seasons.

According to BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) Fares, no ... virtually everything is "any permitted". I suspect there may have been some sort of agreement as Chiltern were allowed to enter Oxford that they would not undercut GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)?

It looks like fares from Bicester (set by Chiltern) aren't much less, so by providing a cheaper Oxford via HW fare they'd be undercutting their own fares further up the line.

[ellendune]

An update with a video from Paul Clifton of the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) on Twitter:

The video shows clusters of piles in the river either side of the bridge.  So they weren't driven under the bridge. 

Screen grab below

[Red Squirrel]

The uncaptioned chap from NR^» (Network Rail - home page) said:

"We'd normally spend 2 or 3 years in planning and designing and getting everything organised"

This situation is very abnormal for a number of reasons, but one can't help wondering if other projects could move forward quicker if there was a greater sense of urgency...

[ChrisB]

Known as ‘JFDI^▸ (just flipping do it (polite version))’?…..

[Red Squirrel]

Known as ‘JFDI^▸ (just flipping do it (polite version))’?…..

Well, yeah.

I have an engineering background (mechanical rather than civil) so I do understand that there is a lot more to these things than meets the eye of the lay observer. But even in the exciting new world of Project Speed, I can't help thinking that the general modus operandi is still far too omphaloskeptic.