Class 165's on Bristol Temple Meads-Oxford services

[whole diary]

[Btline]

Although the EWR service will probably terminate in new Chiltern platforms at Oxford, there is the possibility of EWR services running: Somewhere in West - Didcot - Oxford - Water Eaton - Bicester - Bletchley - Bedford/Milton Keynes.

[John R]

I saw some comment last week that the EWR consortium recognise that raising the funds in the current financial climate (particularly from housing developers) is unlikely, and so they are calling on the govt to fund it in CP5^▸ (Control Period 5 - the five year period between 2014 and 2019). So it looks like this is another railway development that is unlikely to happen in the forseeable future because of the credit crunch._

[grahame]

Regarding the long layover at Swindon, a few more minutes would enable the unit to get to Westbury and back. Is there anyway the timetable could be flexed between Cheltenham and Swindon to enable this (granted the section from Cheltenham to Standish will probably be the most difficult to change)

There are a couple of very interesting options in this area, reducing turn around times at Westbury and Swindon and swapping units over, and some wider ones too.  We have put some very specific proposals forward, and got a few "yes but" issues - problems - thrown up. We have now submitted a modification which I believe fixes most of these issues.  However, we don't have freight path and staffing roster data so to some extent are suggesting things with one eye open rather than 2.

Retiming other services is always going to be slightly nasty ...  even if you provide a brand new service that carries 50 people, any ripples AT ALL that even delay a handful of others by a handful of minutes will get adverse publicity which the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) naturally wants to avoid at any cost. 

[Btline]

How about the old Wessex timetable? I doubt the GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line)/SWML^▸ (South Western Mail Line) timetables have changed so much as to make it impossible.

[Richard Fairhurst]

To me, the obvious quick win for the Oxford-Bristol case (yeah, I know these things are never that easy) would be reinstating Didcot stops in all XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) services.

That would greatly improve Oxford-Bristol connections, and be especially convenient for Leamington and Banbury travellers. At present it's far too common to have to endure a long, long wait when trying to connect at Didcot. With fewer XC services these days continuing south of Reading, there's less of an issue with inconveniencing long-distance travellers.

[Btline]

Just over half the XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) services run beyond Reading, to Bournemouth and a single service to Guildford.

XC want to extend the Reading terminators to Bournemouth.

[JayMac]

Although the EWR service will probably terminate in new Chiltern platforms at Oxford, there is the possibility of EWR services running: Somewhere in West - Didcot - Oxford - Water Eaton - Bicester - Bletchley - Bedford/Milton Keynes.

Are there any links out there to this EWR thingy. What's it all about? I'm struggling to find the info myself.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Try http://www.eastwestrail.org.uk/ 

[Electric train]

Although the EWR service will probably terminate in new Chiltern platforms at Oxford, there is the possibility of EWR services running: Somewhere in West - Didcot - Oxford - Water Eaton - Bicester - Bletchley - Bedford/Milton Keynes.

Are there any links out there to this EWR thingy. What's it all about? I'm struggling to find the info myself.

http://www.eastwestrail.org.uk/ not that it says very much

[Chris from Nailsea]

There's also http://www.railway-technology.com/projects/east-westlink/ 

[JayMac]

Thanks for those links Chris, I initially thought the earlier posts were something to do with EWS^▸ (English Welsh & Scottish Railway Ltd, now known as DB Schenker Rail (UK^▸ (United Kingdom))). Must learn to read, rather than scan!!!