New rail link is capital idea

[whole diary]

[IndustryInsider]

Yes, that probably explains it then.  A shame that such squabbles could lead to a missed opportunity in my opinion.  I mean, it's a bit like Bristol Parkway being called Stoke Gifford Parkway - I bet patronage of the station would decline slightly if it was!

[inspector_blakey]

There's always the compromise option of "Water Eaton and Kidlington" or something along those lines. Maybe even Water Eaton and Kidlington Parkway? Water Eaton and North Oxford...? The possibilities are, if not exactly endless, certainly mainfold!

[willc]

But the name is established already, so people in the surrounding area whose custom Chiltern is after know exactly where you're talking about, which I suspect is why Chiltern simply adopted it from the off. Putting Oxford in the name would probably end up confusing tourists and if you used Kidlington, would you have to remove it if Kidlington proper reopened?

[IndustryInsider]

Putting Oxford in the name would probably end up confusing tourists and if you used Kidlington, would you have to remove it if Kidlington proper reopened?

Perhaps.  If you used Kidlington Parkway, then if Kidlington gets a station on the main line (and to be honest I can't see it due to the lack of a suitable service to stop there), then you just call that 'Kidlington' 

[inspector_blakey]

I don't really buy the tourism argument, they seem to be able to cope with the endless London termini, Bristol Temple Meads/Parkway etc etc, so why should Oxford be any different? Not that our railway system should be designed primarily around serving confused tourists in the first place.

Maybe in the best GW^▸ (Great Western) traditions, you could have "Water Eaton and Kidlington Road" (seeing as it's a little way from Kidlington, although not quite as far away as Builth Road is from Builth Wells...) and Kidlington General, if hell freezes over and the original halt gets reopened

[willc]

Not sure that's a 19th century habit (also favoured by the LSWR^▸ (London South Western Railway) in places) worth reviving, especially when Oxford Road runs past the entrance.

As I say, the park-and-ride site has an established name and there's never been a vigorous campaign by Kidlington residents to get it changed (and you could probably have a similar argument about the names of some other Oxford p+r sites too).

[IndustryInsider]

That you certainly could - Redbridge, Seacourt, Pear Tree and Thornhill don't exactly shout out where they are to anybody driving in to Oxford who's not a local for the day - I doubt many Oxford residents could put the correct name to all four of them.  My slightly tongue-in-cheek suggestion would be to take the opportunity to rename them logically, i.e. 'B':South Oxford Park & Ride, 'F': North Oxford Park & Ride, 'E': West Oxford Park & Ride and 'C': East Oxford Park & Ride, and then finally rename Water Eaton ('G' on the map) as South Kidlington Park & Ride containing the new Kidlington Parkway station! 

[eightf48544]

One other thing to consider is road singage. What is the Park and Ride sign posted as?

I would suggest this is name used for the station which if built would I understand be adjacent to the Park and Ride.

Then all that would have to be done to the road signs would be to add a red double arrow transfer.

[willc]

What are you saying? Do you want to put the entire Britsh sign-making industry out of business?

[Chris from Nailsea]

 

[inspector_blakey]

That you certainly could - Redbridge, Seacourt, Pear Tree and Thornhill don't exactly shout out where they are to anybody driving in to Oxford who's not a local for the day

An excellent point, and one that I had over-looked as a result of overfamiliarity (I was a resident of Oxford for 9 years).

[Btline]

Water Eaton and Peartree are very close anyway.

And as the parking's free, I always wonder why people use others than Thornhill and Peartree!

[inspector_blakey]

Erm, because the parking's free at all of the sites The bus fares are identical too. Broadly speaking, there's a park and ride located on the ring road at each of the main "access points" ; Seacourt if arriving from Swindon and the west via the A420, Redbridge if you're approaching up the A34, Thornhill if you're arriving from London, etc. Travelling round the ring road at certain times of day can be an absolute nightmare, so having all those sites makes the whole scheme far more convenient and attractive to potential users.

[willc]

Should anyone wish to read Chiltern's opening statement to the public inquiry into the Oxford-Bicester project it is online here http://www.obrag.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Opening-on-behalf-of-Chiltern-Railways.pdf