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Author Topic: Oxford Station - improvements, incidents and events (merged topic)  (Read 254797 times)
IndustryInsider
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« Reply #15 on: June 02, 2009, 23:07:07 »

Oxford is notorious for bikes filling up racks no matter how many you have. This sort of thing has been done routinely over the years, as quite a few students just leave a ramshackle old thing and forget all about it when they leave University.

Two stories spring to mind, once a contractor was on site early on a Sunday morning removing those bikes that had been deemed abandoned, and despite the police being informed in advance, they still turned up with sirens blazing having had a phone call from someone assuming they were being nicked!

The other story harks back to the days of the station forecourt development (circa 1997), when all of the racks were renewed and abandoned bikes were removed to a storage facility in what was to become the Said Business School. Several bikes remained uncollected after a few months and were disposed of, but some chap came down well over a year later asking where his bike was!
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« Reply #16 on: November 12, 2009, 18:44:45 »

From the BBC» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

Quote
Oxford station to get ^10m revamp

Oxford railway station is to benefit from Network Rail's ^3.25bn investment programme, the company has revealed.

More than 2,000 stations will receive a share of the money between now and 2014, with Oxford earmarked to get at least ^10m.

Some of the improvements will include new passenger information systems, new toilets and waiting rooms, as well as new and longer platforms.

A survey will be carried out to find out what passengers want at stations.

Network Rail operations and customer service director Robin Gisby said: "Stations are the railways' shop-front and they have been ignored for too long. With the punctuality of the railways now running at record levels and our major programme to boost capacity and provide more seats on trains under way, we can now look at other priorities and stations are at the top of the list."
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William Huskisson MP (Member of Parliament) was the first person to be killed by a train while crossing the tracks, in 1830.  Many more have died in the same way since then.  Don't take a chance: stop, look, listen.

"Level crossings are safe, unless they are used in an unsafe manner."  Discuss.
inspector_blakey
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« Reply #17 on: November 12, 2009, 19:02:10 »

Erm, unless it was all a dream, Oxford was refurbished with a shiny new information system, new loos and new waiting rooms not many months ago! Not to mention an M&S. So presumably that GBP10m is mostly targeted for new and longer platforms...
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paul7575
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« Reply #18 on: November 12, 2009, 19:14:43 »

Drawings in the GW (Great Western) RUS (Route Utilisation Strategy) suggest that both platforms will be islands, with four tracks through the middle, so surely a fair proportion will have to be spent relocating the station building?

Is a Banbury like layout (of the buildings, lifts and footbridge) the most probable solution?

Edit: then of course there are the new Chiltern platforms - north of the ticket office maybe?

Paul
« Last Edit: November 12, 2009, 19:22:04 by paul7755 » Logged
willc
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« Reply #19 on: November 13, 2009, 09:19:02 »

Nothing to do with the RUS (Route Utilisation Strategy) diagram - anything like that would have to wait for Oxford area resignalling in the 2014-19 control period. This money is to be spent in the current control period up to 2014.

More likely to be for the bay platforms on part of the car park for London services.

And Chiltern's plans have been in the public domain for monhs, see http://www.chiltern-evergreen3.co.uk/uploads/images/Chiltern%20A4%208pp%20Booklet%20V9%20Website%20v2.pdf
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paul7575
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« Reply #20 on: November 13, 2009, 11:55:27 »

Yes I know about Evergreen, what I was really thinking of was that if the ticket office wasn't on the back of the main up platform, it would have to be set further back, and the Chiltern platforms would be sort of on their own behind it to the north, with no level access to the main up island, but I didn't really phrase it right.

What is amazing though, is that they are thinking of spending all this money on the current plan, when it is already superseded. What I can't be sure of is whether there is still a south facing bay with the new scheme, because it would seem to create a conflicting crossing move for terminating arrivals.  Surely the better solution would be a turnback siding (or two) between the main through lines north of the station?

Paul
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willc
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« Reply #21 on: November 14, 2009, 00:59:58 »

The current layout has not been superseded - the RUS (Route Utilisation Strategy) diagram is no more than an ideal world exercise in wishful thinking at this stage. The south end bay has been talked about for some time, is do-able without affecting the operations of the rest of the station and will have long-term benefits, whatever may happen in some years' time, plus it would be available for use if you decided to start knocking about the rest of the station layout to achieve something like the RUS suggestion - you simply could not operate the normal timetable using one through platform while rebuilding work took place.

The approach to Oxford is already signalled to allow terminating trains - and northbound workings if platform 2 is occupied/blocked - to run into platform 1 from the south using the loop line - at quieter times of the day, especially late evening, this happens a lot anyway, as it saves people the trek over the bridge and the trains can run straight on into the stabling sidings. Any turnback, if you could fit one in without mucking up the alignment of the through lines, would still block a couple of tracks while a train was entering or leaving it, not much better than the all-line block that a movement from the west sidings into platform 1 creates now.
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paul7575
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« Reply #22 on: November 26, 2009, 15:50:37 »

Network Rail's plans for the southern bay online today:

http://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/content/detail.aspx?ReleaseID=4835&NewsAreaID=2&SearchCategoryID=8

Paul
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« Reply #23 on: November 26, 2009, 18:25:13 »

Thanks for posting the link, Paul. Exciting times ahead for Oxford! In three years time the number of platforms could be double what there are now.

I hope they don't lose too many spaces in the car park, or if they do they make provision for more elsewhere - when I had a gander at about lunchtime today there was only about 20 free spaces in the long stay car park.

Also, if you look at the aerial diagram of the proposed extra platform, it becomes clear that however they dress it up, this is a far from ideal solution to the capacity problems. Just look at the hike you'll have to do if you arrive at the London end of a HST (High Speed Train) in the new bay platform and want to connect with a Bicester train or something in platform 3!
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« Reply #24 on: November 26, 2009, 18:46:03 »

And presumably the First Class pax will have furthest of all to walk. Grin  Poor things...

Paul
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« Reply #25 on: November 26, 2009, 19:51:14 »

Thanks for posting the link, Paul. Exciting times ahead for Oxford! In three years time the number of platforms could be double what there are now.

I hope they don't lose too many spaces in the car park, or if they do they make provision for more elsewhere - when I had a gander at about lunchtime today there was only about 20 free spaces in the long stay car park.

Also, if you look at the aerial diagram of the proposed extra platform, it becomes clear that however they dress it up, this is a far from ideal solution to the capacity problems. Just look at the hike you'll have to do if you arrive at the London end of a HST (High Speed Train) in the new bay platform and want to connect with a Bicester train or something in platform 3!

I think there's around 250 lost parking spaces or so I am told.

Also, bear in mind that to reach the new bay platform terminating trains will have to crossover from the Down Main Line to the Up & Down Goods Loop at Hinksey North. Isnt that just shifting the shunting move from the north of the station to the south - it still takes out capacity doesn't it?

FC(resolve) users will enjoy the exercise as they hike down the platform everyday to get back to their 4x4's in the car park!
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« Reply #26 on: November 26, 2009, 21:47:33 »

And presumably the First Class pax will have furthest of all to walk. Grin  Poor things...

Paul

Does your comment allow for the planned flip of High Speed Train's (HST (High Speed Train))s (assuming this is still happening?)

Edit: VickiS - Clarifying Acronym
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« Reply #27 on: November 27, 2009, 23:57:45 »

Quote
I think there's around 250 lost parking spaces or so I am told.

Also, bear in mind that to reach the new bay platform terminating trains will have to crossover from the Down Main Line to the Up & Down Goods Loop at Hinksey North. Isnt that just shifting the shunting move from the north of the station to the south - it still takes out capacity doesn't it?

If it was 250 spaces that would account for about half of the entire car park and even taking the most pessimistic view, going by the plan, the area being used wouldn't account for that scale of losses.

As for the crossing move, of course it affects capacity, but not as badly as the shunt at the north end across from the sidings west of the line to platform 1, which blocks any other movement in the entire station area. Even under current arrangements, if there are two trains from Didcot heading into Oxford - one terminating and one behind it going towards Banbury or Worcester - the signallers are pretty skilled - so long as platform 1 is free - at switching the terminating train into platform 1, then resetting the route for the following train to head into platform 2, achieving near simultaneous arrivals. I have even seen this done while there is a freight bound for Didcot crawling along on the through line at low speed, waiting for the main line to clear once the train routed for platform 1 is safely in the loop line.

Of course this scheme is not ideal but due to interminable prevarication on the part of the city and county councils and the railway industry over grasping the nettle of what to do with the station and the adjacent Rewley Road LNWR (London North Western Railway) site, we are where we are. There were plans as far back as the 1950s to build the main city bus station on the Rewley Road land and link it with a better railway station, but nothing was ever done and Railtrack eventually flogged it off to the university to build the Said business school, thus effectively removing any room to shunt the station to the east - and compounded the crime by allowing the youth hostel to go up at the back of platform 2, making it much harder to make space for a loop line to create an island at that side.

And the business units alongside the tracks beyond the southern end of the car park were built on yet more former railway land, which would have been ideal for replacement parking. Isn't hindsight a wonderful thing...

See also http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/archive/2009/11/26/Oxford+news+%28om_oxfordnews%29/4760538.__10m_platform_for_Oxford_railway_station_expansion/
« Last Edit: November 28, 2009, 00:10:42 by willc » Logged
Oxman
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« Reply #28 on: November 28, 2009, 00:34:53 »

The car park is a major issue. The disproportional reduction in the number of spaces is caused by the creation of a drop off point and the introduction of a significant number of disabled parking spaces, with all spaces conforming to current standards. The number of disabled spaces is also governed by legislation, I believe.

Adding the Chiltern Evergreen 3 proposal (which will take out the short stay car park) increases the problem. A radical solution is needed - time to deck the car park?
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« Reply #29 on: November 28, 2009, 17:45:23 »

A radical solution is needed - time to deck the car park?

That would be a good solution, but would it ever be allowed given the architectural status of the city? There's also plenty of spare land in the former South Yard which could be used, but it's a long way from the main part of the station.
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