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Chris from Nailsea
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« on: January 17, 2014, 23:16:13 » |
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From the Witney Gazette: Railway line could hold answer to A40 problem
A new transport group has been set up to tackle the ^chronically-congested^ traffic on the A40.
The Witney Oxford Transport group has been formed because of persistent heavy traffic on the A40 west of Oxford. It is made up of people and the Thames Valley branch of Railfuture, the Oxford branch of Bus Users UK▸ and Sustainable Witney.
Hugh Jaeger, of the bus group, is helping to lead it. He said: ^There^s an acute problem with traffic on the A40 and something needs to be done. We want a feasibility study to look at what the best options are to tackle the problem.^
One option being looked at is reinstating the old railway line between Oxford and Witney, or introducing a tram system to run along the A40 corridor, or on the B4044 from Botley to Farmoor. He said a study would cost between ^10,000 and ^20,000.
Mr Jaeger said the old railway line had been built on at South Leigh, Eynsham and Cassington, although most of it was still in place.
He said bus company Stagecoach had welcomed the idea due to the ^acute^ problem with delays holding up S1 and S2 buses between Oxford and Witney.
Stagecoach Oxfordshire managing director Martin Sutton said: ^We are keen to see what we can do to improve the experience of people travelling from Carterton, Witney and Eynsham along the A40. The S1 and S2 buses suffer from severe traffic congestion and any bright idea that can improve that, I am keen to talk about. The key is to have some dedicated pathway and the real challenge is finding how that might be achieved.^
Andrew McCallum, secretary of Railfuture^s Thames Valley branch, said the plan to re-use the old railway line was ^realistic^. He said: ^We need to take action because the A40 is chronically congested. The old railway track could be used in some form or another.^
The old railway line ran from Oxford to the edge of Yarnton, to Cassington and round the southern edge of Eynsham, before reaching Witney.
County council leader Ian Hudspeth said finances were too tight to investigate the issue. He said: ^The A40 is one of our main issues and we are currently bidding for funding to build a link road from the A40 to the Peartree roundabout to relieve pressure from the Wolvercote roundabout. We have limited funds and feasibility studies cost money. The best way to alleviate pressure on the A40 is to improve the junctions along it.^
Last month, the county council put forward plans to build a park-and-ride at Eynsham to reduce traffic on the A40.
The launch meeting of the Witney Oxford Transport Group will take place on Wednesday at the High Street Methodist Church in Witney at 7pm. All are welcome.
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William Huskisson MP▸ 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.
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Lee
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« Reply #1 on: January 18, 2014, 00:18:08 » |
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From the Witney Gazette: County council leader Ian Hudspeth said finances were too tight to investigate the issue. He said: ^The A40 is one of our main issues and we are currently bidding for funding to build a link road from the A40 to the Peartree roundabout to relieve pressure from the Wolvercote roundabout. We have limited funds and feasibility studies cost money. The best way to alleviate pressure on the A40 is to improve the junctions along it.^ Which roughly translates as "Todays problems, Yesterdays solutions." |
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grahame
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« Reply #2 on: January 18, 2014, 07:16:16 » |
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From the Witney Gazette: County council leader Ian Hudspeth said finances were too tight to investigate the issue. He said: ^The A40 is one of our main issues and we are currently bidding for funding to build a link road from the A40 to the Peartree roundabout to relieve pressure from the Wolvercote roundabout. We have limited funds and feasibility studies cost money. The best way to alleviate pressure on the A40 is to improve the junctions along it.^ Which roughly translates as "Todays problems, Yesterdays solutions." Have they already done a feasibility study that concluded that improving junctions along the A40 is the best way forward, or is the county council leader coming to that conclusion without such background work (that's certainly the implication) There does indeed need to be careful choice of feasibility studies made, but they're a vital way forward to ensure that much bigger spends are properly targeted, once there is the smattering of a chance that a study will lead to a better informed and perhaps different conclusion about the way forward. Of course, if there's no prospect of any way forward from options studied, there's little point in studying. I can recall being faced with the need for studies here in Wiltshire for the TransWilts which at the time looked like a near-impossible hurdles with a significant price tag - what a relief that a way was found through co-operation between the various parties involved to get over those hurdles, even if the studies (or necessity) used various theoretical methods which have themselves been discussed and argued over as we've gone forward, better informed towards the decision made to raise services from under 1,400 to over 5,400 per annum. |
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Coffee Shop Admin, Acting Chair of Melksham Rail User Group, Option 24/7 Melksham Rep
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John R
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« Reply #3 on: January 18, 2014, 10:50:41 » |
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My knowledge of the area is a bit dated, but 23 years ago I periodically had to make the journey eastwards along the A40 from Witney in the early morning rush hour and was taken aback even then as to how long the queues were. And a quick look at the map made me wonder why a short link to Peartree wasn't built to redistribute traffic more efficiently. (Would need to ensure Pertree has the capacity to take the extra traffic though.)
So whilst I am inclined to support rail over road, one has to recognise the many of those queuing will not be heading into the centre of Oxford, and many won't be starting their journey from Witney. So maybe a short section of new road would be a cost effective way of relieving many people's daily commute.
In a similar way, a relatively modest investment has improved the M5 J19, and significantly eased (so we're led to believe) the daily queues coming out of Portishead. Whilst some of those drivers will be headed towards the centre of Bristol, many more will be headed elsewhere, and won't be able to benefit directly from the railway (except to the extent that it will further ease the traffic). So, we do need to have a balanced view.
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didcotdean
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« Reply #4 on: January 18, 2014, 14:38:06 » |
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Hudspeth before becoming leader of the council held the transport portfolio for many years so probably knows the thinking as much as anyone. The council's current position is not to permit further development to prevent a rail option in the future, but doing anything more positive is a long-term aspiration and no more.
The original route doesn't have a lot going for it really. Single throughout, it has been built over it several places, including a stretch of road, and crossed the A40 on the level. The old station sites are gone, and don't go well with the way the places have developed anyway. It met the OW&W at Yarnton, not the best place for capacity even assuming re-doubling.
A new light rail route might be cheaper and better but any through route route into Oxford would be the main difficulty.
Witney-Oxford currently supports a fully commercial bus service with frequencies up to 9 an hour.
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Andrew1939 from West Oxon
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« Reply #5 on: January 18, 2014, 19:43:54 » |
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The comment by didcotdean that "the railway crossed the A40 on the level" is incorrect, The A40 crosses the railway by a bridge that was rebuilt to modern standards a few years ago to preserve at least part of the old track route. There are however many places where the rail route has been built over including both Eynsham and Witney.
I attended the meeting and with regard to Grahame's comments on a study, it was pointed out that consultants Mott Macdonald carried out a study into reopening the Witney Line for the county council in 2001. Many of the ssumptions used in that study have since proved to be very wrong on such points as population growth has been much more than predicted in the study with much more growth likely under the emerging West Oxon local plan. In addition, commuting for work has grown enormously as traditional Witney work places such as Witney Blankets have closed and a greater proportion of a much larger poulation commute to the Oxford area and South Oxon (Culham, Harwell and Milton Park etc). It is therfore thought that the 2001 report that predicted a cost benefit ration of 1.8 for a scheme to reopen the Witney line would now be much higher with updated figures. An updated report should, it is thought, cost much less than a completely new study.
A report of the meeting is now on the Witney Gazette web site.
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didcotdean
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« Reply #6 on: January 18, 2014, 20:54:49 » |
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Must have been misremembering the situation relating to the A40 (or maybe what I remember reading elsewhere was itself wrong), so thanks for the correction on that point. My main aim though was that consideration of a modern route rather than resurrection of the old is likely to result in a better cost benefit.
The constraints to expanding housing provision in Oxford which have been in place for decades and consequential expansion in hitherto small towns has heightened the amount of commuting on insufficient infrastructure, some of which are used for long distance travel (road and rail). This has been clearly highlighted this month with the flooding closing or restricting routes and the resultant effect on that remaining.
The current county rail strategy for Witney as I recall considers little more in the immediate term than improving bus service to Hanborough.
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CLPGMS
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« Reply #7 on: January 19, 2014, 11:38:09 » |
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I think that didcot dean may have been thinking of the crossing of the B4044 near the toll bridge at Eynsham. This could now be a major obstacle to reopening on the original alignment. The track bed has been obliterated by a roundabout between the B4449 and B4044 and part of the B4449 has been constructed on the old alignment. I think that there is also a small industrial development in the same area. There is also the major problem of crossing the A40 Witney Bypass dual carriageway if the railway is actually to get into Witney - this road was built after the railway closed. Possibly, a railway would have to terminate on the south side of the bypass about ^ mile from the town centre and currently with no easy access to it.
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Chris from Nailsea
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« Reply #8 on: January 19, 2014, 22:04:34 » |
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A report of the meeting is now on the Witney Gazette web site.
Thanks for that update, Andrew1939.  For the sake of completeness, I'll quote that Witney Gazette article here: Tram-trains could be answer to A40 gridlock STANDSTILL: Traffic backed up on the A40 at Eynsham following an accident during rush-hourAlmost 50 people attended the inaugural meeting of the Witney Oxford Transport Group, set up to tackle the gridlocked A40. The new group is made up of people who use the road on a regular basis as well as groups including Railfuture Thames Valley branch, the Oxford branch of Bus Users UK▸ and Sustainable Witney. They met at a launch event on Wednesday in Witney's High Street Methodist Church, where they backed proposals to seek alternatives to the A40, to help cut journey times between West Oxfordshire and the city. The launch meeting ended with a unanimous call for a new study to be made into the cause of the problems and possible solutions, which would cost an estimated ^10,000 to ^20,000. The three solutions the group has suggested are a metro-style commuter train service between Oxford and Witney, using the Cotswold Line to Yarnton and then a reinstated Witney branch line, a new concrete road exclusively used by buses and a revolutionary ^tram-train^ service, operating partly on the railway and partly on new tracks laid alongside roads. The old branch line railway closed in 1970, but passenger trains to Witney and on to Carterton and Fairford were withdrawn even earlier, in 1962. Hugh Jaeger, of the bus group, said: ^The first step is a feasibility study. We are completely open-minded about the alternatives, but one thing is absolutely certain: We can^t afford to do nothing.^ Mr Jaeger said they hoped to raise the money for the study through contributions from organisations which make up the new transport group. Andrew McCallum, of Railfuture, said: ^The view was that people wanted something new, off the A40 itself.^ The meeting was also attended by West Oxfordshire Labour district councillors Andrew Coles and Duncan Enright. Mr Enright said: ^The issue of the A40 a major problem. This campaign is welcome. Andrew and I decided to go back to the council to try to garner support.^ Sustainable Witney^s Peter Lefort described the A40 as a big problem and said it was good to hear people^s ideas. In reply, Rodney Rose, deputy leader of Oxfordshire County Council, who represents Charlbury and the Wychwoods, said: ^We are interested to hear ideas but they must be fully costed and it must be clear where the money will come from. Our immediate priorities are for an A40 to A44 link road and improvements to the Wolvercote and Cutteslowe roundabouts as part of the Oxfordshire City Deal.^ |
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William Huskisson MP▸ 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.
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Oberon
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« Reply #9 on: September 07, 2014, 15:16:56 » |
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Meanwhile campaign group Witney Oxford Transport is calling for the Witney to Oxford line to be reopened to allieviate pressure on the congested A40. The line closed to passenger trains in 1962 and continued as a freight-only line until 1970 when that too ended and the track was ripped up. A section of the line at Eynsham was subsequently built on, making restoring the line a much more difficult and expensive operation. As reported in yesterday^s Oxford Mail, a likely solution to the A40 problems is a guided bus system, similar to one already in operation in Cambridge, which will enable bus services to speed past traffic queues on a dedicated route. Oxfordshire has been given a ^35m Government grant which would cover the lion^s share of the ^40m the scheme is expected to cost. The above is a quote from today's Witney Gazette. http://www.witneygazette.co.uk/news/wgheadlines/11456948._We_ll_be_the_centre_of_the_rail_universe_/ |
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« Last Edit: September 07, 2014, 16:06:16 by bignosemac »
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Oberon
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« Reply #11 on: September 07, 2014, 18:06:27 » |
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Let's face it, guided bus-ways are provided because politicians won't stump up the money for proper transport. Makes you proud doesn't it to live in a place where proper environmentally clean rapid transport seems to be anathema..
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Puffing Billy
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« Reply #12 on: September 07, 2014, 19:07:33 » |
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Even if the blocked section of the line could be diverted, surely there would be no way of fitting in services in between Cotswold Line trains (assuming that they would join at a rebuilt Yarnton Junction). Would a feasible alternative be to re-open Yarnton as a "parkway" station (or is Hanborough already considered to fulfil that function)?
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Puffing Billy
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« Reply #13 on: September 07, 2014, 19:16:40 » |
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Should this pipe-dream come true, can I plea for any potential through trains for London be diverted to a different terminus? I would dearly love to say I have travelled on the Witney-Euston express!
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ellendune
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« Reply #14 on: September 07, 2014, 19:46:20 » |
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Let's face it, guided bus-ways are provided because politicians won't stump up the money for proper transport. Makes you proud doesn't it to live in a place where proper environmentally clean rapid transport seems to be anathema..
Except that the Cambridge one cost far more than reinstating the railway! Except that the initial estimate said it would be cheaper! |
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