Oxford Station - improvements, incidents and events (merged topic)

[whole diary]

[ellendune]

Long-awaited plans for Oxford railway station spelled out

OXFORD train station should be redeveloped on its existing site instead of being rebuilt elsewhere, bosses behind a planned revamp say.

Network Rail yesterday submitted a raft of infrastructure plans costing up to ^300m, including a new station by 2019.

Its predecessor Railtrack and Oxfordshire County Council had previously backed moving the station to a new site south of the existing station off Oxpens Road.

But Network Rail route managing director Patrick Hallgate yesterday said: ^Our preferred option is to leave it where it is. We believe there is little benefit from moving it, from a rail perspective.^

Moving the station further south would be ^prohibitively expensive^ as the land slopes downwards, he said.

Network Rail wants to add a third platform to the west of the station by the youth hostel and replace the Botley Road bridge to cater for the extra track. That will also see the road space below widened.

Mr Hallgate said passenger numbers have grown by 40 per cent in the last decade and are expected to rise another 40 per cent in the coming 10 years.

A raft of projects is set to boost Oxford^s capacity including faster, bigger electric trains, a line to Milton Keynes and a new link to London Marylebone via Bicester.

Mr Hallgate said: ^If we don^t create another platform we will struggle to meet that extra demand.^

The firm, along with council chiefs, is about to put out an invitation for station designs, which would not necessarily mean a complete rebuild.

Network Rail ^ which owns the station ^ pledged to continue having 90 per cent of trains arrive within five minutes of schedule during the work.

Mr Hallgate said the current rebuild of Reading station showed this could be done, but there would ^inevitably be trade-offs^.

Rodney Rose, deputy leader of Oxfordshire County Council, responsible for roads, ^totally agreed^ with the plans.

He said: ^I don^t see the funding being available to move it and, for a transport hub, it is better to be more central in Oxford.^

The authority is keeping an open mind on where parking and bus services would go, he said.

Oxford City Council leader Bob Price said: ^Frankly, the cost of moving it further down as people have suggested is astronomical. It is not worth the significant extra expense it would involve.^

But Oxford Civic Society chairman Peter Thompson, who has called for the station to move to land by Oxford Ice Rink, urged a rethink.

He said: ^If Network Rail are spending a huge amount of money anyway, the opportunity should be taken to provide Oxford with a properly integrated transport hub.^

OxRail passenger group spokesman Dennis Tan said of Network Rail^s plans: ^I don^t think it will go down well with a lot of commuters.

^A lot of people were expecting a brand new station. It is very crowded in peak hours.^

Network Rail^s plan has been submitted to the Office of Rail Regulation which will publish its final decision on how much funding it available in October.

PEOPLE will be able to have their say on billions of pounds of potential investment in the county^s railways tonight.
Members of the public can quiz officers from Network Rail on its five-year investment plan that will see ^9bn spent on the Great Western main line by 2019.
Network Rail plans to electrify the line and redevelop Oxford Station as well as creating a new link between the city and London Marylebone.
Yesterday these projects were confirmed as being part of the organisation^s five-year plan.
Some groups, including the Wolvercote Commoners, have expressed concern about the impact the planned schemes would have.
Commoners chairman Michael Buck said: ^We want to make sure that the development doesn^t affect the common.
The meeting is at the Town Hall in St Aldate^s, starting at 6.30pm with a presentation on the proposals.

[mjones]

This interested me: "Network Rail wants to add a third platform to the west of the station by the youth hostel and replace the Botley Road bridge to cater for the extra track. That will also see the road space below widened".

Highlighting the short sighted decision to allow the youth hostel to be built there in the first place...

But if the bridge can be widened at the same time that would be very helpful, providing an opportunity to provide continuous full width cycle lanes where it is currently very squeezed and a significant hazard.

[paul7575]

It always seemed to me that the pretty vocal lobby that wanted to move lock stock and barrel down to Oxpens (by the ice rink) were looking at the problem purely from the perspective of commuting towards London.  The site was pretty much useless once you added in Chiltern's known plans, the possibility of E/W rail, existing XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) and freight to the Midlands, and the Cotswolds services, most of which seems to add up to a conventional through station on a straightforward north/south alignment.

Regarding the bridge being 'widened' though, IIRC^▸ (if I recall/remember/read correctly) NR^» (Network Rail - home page) used the term 'widening' for the work at Caversham and Vastern Rd bridges in Reading.  This then appeared to mislead a few into thinking the widening would apply to the roads, but in hindsight they actually just meant the width available for the railway...

Paul   

[ellendune]

Architects vie to put train station on map This is Oxfordshire

10:30am Friday 11th January 2013 in News By Katriona Ormiston

Buy this photo ^ Chris Aldridge, NetWork Rail's principal strategic planner, talks to a packed public meeting in the Long Room at the Town Hall
ARCHITECTS are set to design the revamp of Oxford railway station.

Plans to appoint an architect to redesign the station have been agreed by Oxford City Council and Network Rail.

Councillor Jean Fooks said a competition was being run by the Royal Institute of British Architects for the best design for the station.

She said: ^It is very exciting there will be an architect to design the station. That doesn^t happen to stations generally so it^s great news.

^The plans for the railway in Oxford look really good, but clearly you have to look at the effects of increasing traffic on people who live nearby.^


The masterplan for Oxford^s rail future was greeted with enthusiasm by residents at a meeting on Wednesday.

More than 100 people packed into a crowded room at Oxford Town Hall to hear the proposals.

Network Rail principal strategic planner for the western region, Chris Aldridge, said plans were to make Oxford a central hub for the UK^▸ (United Kingdom)^s railways.

He said: ^It is a great opportunity to develop Oxford. I think the city has a great rail future and we will be working closely both with Oxford City Council and Oxfordshire County Council to make it happen.

^We will be developing it to work as a hub for trains to run across the UK. So far, Oxford has been a terminating point but this will change that.^

Mr Aldridge said plans were to build another platform at the station and extra tracks.

That will double the number of trains which run through Oxfordshire at the moment.

Adrian James, 50, from Osney, said: ^I live near the station and use it. Oxford is a world-class city so it is brilliant we are now going to get our world-class station.

^Everyone in the world knows Oxford and they arrive at that station, and my god what they must think of it at the moment. People in Botley need to feel better connected, too.^

The ^70m development proposed for the county is part of the countrywide ^300m plan by Network Rail announced on Tuesday. At the moment there are 11 trains per hour running through Oxford.

In 2019 that number is set to double to 22 in total.

But people who live near the railway lines said the plans to double the number of trains filled them with dread.

Keith Dancy, from St Peters Road in Wolvercote, said: ^My pictures fall off the walls when a train goes past, the vibrations are so bad.

^My neighbour even thought she was having a heart attack when the freight trains went past she was shaking so much, so it is not good news for us.^

Mr Aldridge said he did not know what kind of mitigation people who live near the rail lines might receive but Network Rail would look into it.

Extra track lines at Oxford station will also mean freight trains can pass through the central tracks between platforms at the station while passenger trains load and unload.

The Royal Institute of British Architects was unavailable for comment.

Extra track lines at Oxford station will also mean freight trains can pass through the central tracks between platforms at the station while passenger trains load and unload.

One commentator has pointed out that the author had obviously never been to the station as they can do this now.

[paul7575]

"Oxford has been a terminating point..."   

If only there were through trains to Scotland...

Paul

[Puffing Billy]

Just wondering, but would it be at all feasible to extend the existing platforms northward and have crossovers at the mid-way point to achieve the same flexibility as parallel platforms? I can see that it would involve a lot of signalling and fancy pointwork, not to mention at least partial relocation of the carriage/servicing sidings, but on the other hand it could avoid having to extend the current railway boundaries and virtually rebuild the main buildings.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Thanks for posting, Puffing Billy - and welcome to the Coffee Shop forum! 

I have no answer to your suggestion, as I'm not an Oxford expert - but I'm sure you will have some responses from our erudite members shortly!

[81F]

Just wondering, but would it be at all feasible to extend the existing platforms northward and have crossovers at the mid-way point to achieve the same flexibility as parallel platforms? I can see that it would involve a lot of signalling and fancy pointwork, not to mention at least partial relocation of the carriage/servicing sidings, but on the other hand it could avoid having to extend the current railway boundaries and virtually rebuild the main buildings.

When I first came to Oxford in 1964 there were diamond crossovers between through and platform lines halfway down each platform. Ex-area manager David Mather led a walk around the railway lands of Oxford last September (part of the "Open Doors" weekend) and I asked him whether this might be a way of handling more trains through Oxford station. He reckoned not, and was in favour of a new station south of Botley Road with tracks re-aligned through the car park.
Only last week [9 Jan 2013] there was a public meeting at Oxford Town Hall where NR^» (Network Rail - home page) revealed their plans for increasing capacity, basically involving turning the down platform into an island (on the present site).
I have a file of NRs powerpoint presentation showing how they propose to deal with traffic growth.   It includes, inter much alia, their plans for the new station layout. I don't know how to post it to this newsgroup, but if anyone is keen to see it, please send a personal message with email address and I'll send it to you attached to an email.

[paul7575]

Only last week [9 Jan 2013] there was a public meeting at Oxford Town Hall where NR^» (Network Rail - home page) revealed their plans for increasing capacity, basically involving turning the down platform into an island (on the present site).

I think a couple of us discussed this possibility in one of the previous threads about Oxford station a year or so back.  In the 2011 GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line) RUS^▸ (Route Utilisation Strategy) they were proposing turning both sides into islands, and that looked incredibly difficult to achieve, given the layout of the main station buildings, and Chiltern's plans for the Marylebone bays etc.

I for one thought that a through line behind the down platform would give them much of the operational flexibility required, as trains from the south could terminate and head back towards Didcot from the current down platform, without conflicting at all with other down through trains that would pass through on the new platform.  The addition of the up side bay alongside the car park provides another option for terminating trains from the south of course, presumably this may still happen as well.

Paul

[IndustryInsider]

Yes, that looks like the favoured layout at the moment.  Space constraints mean that it'll be a very tight squeeze, especially (and assuming) given that platform lengths will need to be at least 270 metres to be able to accommodate 10-Car Bi-mode IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.)'s.  Currently platforms 1 and 2 are 275 metres long, so are just about OK, but it's clear to see why the Botley Road bridge will need widening in order to give room for the new track.

Buildings wise it works quite well given how tight the space is.  Just south of Botley Road is railway land and buildings (the former Railway Club and also some Permanent Way accommodation), which can easily be demolished to allow the track for the new platform to fit in, and with the panel box building becoming redundant in a couple of years, some offices and buildings on platform 2 will need to go, but can easily be built elsewhere.  Crucially there should still be just about be enough room to squeeze in Roger Dudman Way, the access road to the ever growing housing and student accommodation on the site of the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) Locomotive Yard.

[mjones]

And the Youth Hostel...?

[IndustryInsider]

It's tight, but as long as that end of the platform was quite thin, I think it wouldn't be in the way - though they might have to lose a bit of their garden!

[mjones]

Yes, you are (of course!) right- I had in mind that it was right next to the platform buildings but I've just had a wander around there on Google Streetview and there is more space behind than I'd realised.

[IndustryInsider]

Using Google streetview you can also see what an odd road Roger Dudman Way is.  Set to become twice as busy later this year with two new housing developments nearing completion.  I could see the parking spaces being removed and along with removal of the Panel Box building and other signalling related structures further down, there would probably be room for a new track along the existing side of Platform 2 and an improved 'proper' road access.

[paul7575]

The biggest issues would seem to be at the north end, crossing the Sheepwash Channel.   It looks from Google as though the four tracks spread out in width to match the individual bridge positions, (compared to the Botley Rd end of the station it's about twice the width) with the road in question taking the westernmost span.  In hindsight, that doesn't seem to have been such a good idea...

Paul