Oxford station - facilities, improvements, parking, incidents and events - merged posts

[whole diary]

[Lee]

First Great Western starts work next month on a major refurbishment of Oxford station (link below.)
http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/NewsItem.aspx?id=537

[willc]

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) is holding a Meet the Managers session at Oxford station on Tuesday, January 22, from 4pm to 8pm. Might be an interesting four hours if the RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers) strike goes ahead the two previous days. Won't be able to make it myself, as I'm not working that day.

[Lee]

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) is holding a Meet the Managers session at Oxford station on Tuesday, January 22, from 4pm to 8pm. Might be an interesting four hours if the RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers) strike goes ahead the two previous days. Won't be able to make it myself, as I'm not working that day.

More on this and other Meet the Managers sessions in the link below.
http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Content.aspx?id=237

[Lee]

Report from the Oxford meeting (link below.)
http://oxfordmail.net/display.var.1989041.0.rail_passengers_not_impressed.php

[Timmer]

Report from the Oxford meeting (link below.)
http://oxfordmail.net/display.var.1989041.0.rail_passengers_not_impressed.php

Mulled wine and a slice of cake...very nice 

[vacman]

Report from the Oxford meeting (link below.)
http://oxfordmail.net/display.var.1989041.0.rail_passengers_not_impressed.php

Mulled wine and a slice of cake...very nice 

A bit out of season for mulled wine. lol 

[Timmer]

bit out of season for mulled wine. lol 

Like FGW^▸ (First Great Western)'s trains it was running late 

[vacman]

bit out of season for mulled wine. lol 

Like FGW^▸ (First Great Western)'s trains it was running late 

[Lee]

Oxford could soon have its own low-cost, 24-hour rent-a-bike scheme in an effort to cut traffic congestion, as seen in several European cities (link below.)
http://www.oxfordmail.net/display.var.2067765.0.oxford_may_get_rentabike_scheme.php

Oxfordshire County Council has pledged ^100,000 to pay for a feasibility study.

The scheme could see a network of bike stations set up at key points in the city, including the train station, Westgate Centre, park-and-ride sites and city hospitals.

Although plans are currently at an early stage, council chiefs hope a credit card-payable rent-a-bike scheme would take a significant number of cars off the city's roads. They say they want to make any scheme cheap and convenient.

A rent-a-bike scheme started in Paris last July recorded more than seven million bike trips by the end of the year.

It is believed the county council wants to replicate the French capital's blueprint of providing robust bikes, which weigh about 20kg, to make them unattractive to thieves and sturdy enough to withstand damage from vandals.
 
The council's feasibility study starts in April and, if the scheme is viable, it could be introduced in the city before summer 2009.

[Lee]

Newly refurbished men's toilets at Oxford railway station have been vandalised link below.)
http://www.oxfordmail.net/news/headlines/display.var.2067609.0.rail_station_toilets_vandalised.php

Pc Bob Burrowes said: "They smashed up the taps and sink, kicked in the doors and the soap dispenser."

[Lee]

Update on the progress of Oxfordshire County Council's ^80m Access to Oxford scheme, which was given the green light by the Government last year, and includes plans to expand Oxford railway station, with a new bay platform built on part of the station car park on the southern side of Botley Road. Network Rail hopes to carry out this work in 2010-11 (link below.)
http://www.oxfordmail.net/display.var.2206361.0.park_to_ride_fees_will_go.php

[Lee]

West Oxford residents have criticised Network Rail after it emerged the company will wait until next year to replace a popular footbridge into Oxford (link below.)
http://www.oxfordmail.net/news/headlines/display.var.2213844.0.bridge_delays_annoy_residents.php

The rail firm closed a well-used 60-metre bridge in Osney Lane in August, telling residents that refurbishment work would be completed within a couple of months.

However, Network Rail has now posted a new sign at the closed-off site, saying the bridge, over the tracks south of Oxford station, will have to be replaced and will not be reopened until late February next year.

The news has upset dozens of residents.

Becky Bryan, 28, bar manager of the Kite pub, in Mill Street, said:

"Everyone's really annoyed about this. There's lots of rumours flying around and fears it won't open again.

"We just want the footbridge back."

Kristian Alexander, community relations manager at Network Rail, said:

"We acknowledge that for many this will be disappointing news. We're sorry for the inconvenience caused by this and hope our apologies will be accepted.

"High demand in the current steel market and the availability for manufacturing from steel fabricators means this will take longer than we would have liked."

[intrigued]

I've been wondering what the next step to the Oxford rail station re-furb was going to be... looks like M&S web guys are ahead of themselves.  Presuming that the store is going to slot in where the smoothie store and AMT used to be located.

http://www.marksandspencer.com/gp/store-locator/store-locator.html/202-0559640-0756638?ie=UTF8&viewID=details&postcode=&storeID=0120&prevView=listing&client=mands_01&f_id=709&lon=-1.255880&lat=51.752250&db=GB^▸ (Great Britain)

[Lee]

Welcome to the forum, intrigued.

[IanL]

OH well, the much lauded new temporary information screens at Oxford have indeed become temporary. The old and unreliable system is still soldiering on but 2 of the 3 new LCD screens on the main concourse have been switched off for days and the solitary screen on platform 2 has had the same incomplete and out of date information showing for 2 days now.

Long live the old system, we are going to need it!