Is there space for a Bristol to Oxford again?

[whole diary]

[grahame]

The through service from Bristol to Oxford was withdrawn about 3 or 4 years ago because (it was said) of line conjestion in the Bath / Bristol area.   Always a popular service, it's now a nightmare journey from Bath to Oxford, for example ... not only with a change and poor connections at Didicot, but also a change at Swindon somethimes due to some of the odd Didicot stopping patterns.

Me thinks that with some thinning out of the Bath to Bristol services that occurred last December there might be room to restore the service?  And perhaps give some respite / extra service to Keynsham and Oldfield Park and allow the Corsham station plans to be dusted off.

Not my line .. dangerous to speculate.  And thoughts / comments, anyone?

[Lee]

The reason that there is no Oxford - Bristol service is NOT lack of capacity , rather the perceived need for subsidy as pages 38 - 41 of the link below explain.
http://www.dft.gov.uk/foi/responses/2006/september06/swindonwestburytrainsservice/greaterwesternoutlinebusines1103

[Max]

Easy! Yes. I could have my life back if there was a direct service.

It used to take the BTM^▸ (Bristol Temple Meads (strictly, it should be BRI) but BTM is a commonly used alternative)), Bath and Chippenham commuters, who travel to Oxford each day, about 30 mins less to do their journey under the old timetable. So if we got a Bristol-Oxford service or something that does the same thing, meaning we would miss out on the ridiculous changes at Swindon AND Didcot, that would be great.

Thirty mins is a considerable amount of time when the journey is 90 mins. Mornings are not too bad since the slight amendment in Jan, but there are hardly any trains that now stop at Didcot and call at Bath. If you are on a day trip to Oxford, having paid less than 30 quid for your ticket, you are fine, with trains stopping at 1441 and 1541. But if you are a commuter and have paid over ^3000 for your ticket, the next train after 1541 that stops at Didcot and calls at Bath is at 1741. That's a wait of 2 hours! The next one is at 1841, another hour. So to get home, you have to go to Swindon and then get on the train that whizzed through Didcot!

The increase inthe amount of time it takes to make these journeys are because of the lack of trains that call at Didcot and bath, but also the mess FGW^▸ (First Great Western) have made with the connections. Here are some examples. Connection times under the old timetable were sensibly about 10 mins. This take upp any slight delay and give you enough time to walk to the other platform. Now the connection times are 25 mins, -1 mins, 35 mins, 5 mins. Needless to say either too long or too short. Despite that fact the FGW said that they would improve integration since they have bought the Thames Trains franchise, the integration between the Thames Trains services and the FGW services has deteriorated to non-existent. Our only saving grace is the staff at Didcot station. They will hold a particluar train if they see its connecting service coming. We have spoken to staff at other stations but they don't want to know.

I know of about 15 people who do this commute! I only know of these people as they stand by me on the platform. There are others who travel at different times, but am not sure how many.

[grahame]

Hi, Max ... welcome to the forum.

I work in Oxford from time to time ... we've never met (I don't think) but I've used the same services - I used to travel direct from Chippenham to Oxford and there was even one service that didn't reverse at Didcot. Alas - things got seriously worse when the direct trains went and it was ...

Chippenham (on train for one stop) Swindon (on next train for 1 stop) Didcot (on next train for one stop) Oxford.

And I could never work out the reason for the odd Didcot stopping patterns - unless it was to do with discouraging long distance commuters from buying shorter journey tickets secure in the knowledge that all their trains stopped there. 

These days ... a week in Oxford is no longer a daily commute. I know this nice hotel which costs slighly more than commuting, but is much kinder to my weary ole body.

[simonw]

Hi

The biggest shame about is that there is not a simple route from Swindon to Oxford.

If network rail could build, or re-open, track to link Swindon, Oxford, Milton Keynes and Cambridge it would open up those towns and the The East Midlands to the South West. Think of the number of trips via London and car journeys that could be saved.

As it is, people have to go via Didcott Parkway, and since many trains from teh South West do not stop their, the timings can be tricky.

The sad truth of our rail system is that if you are not heading towards London,  or another major city, you can forget Rail an option.

All the best

Simon

[grahame]

Hi, Simon ... and welcome to the forum.

There is actually an East-West rail proposal site (help - I'll need to search it out sometime) and the service would involve Didcot / West curve.   Biggest problem with Didcot is the strange stopping pattern from the West which I suspect is more to do with fares that with spreading the stops "fairly" between Bristol and Cardiff trains.

It seems there are a number of draft proposals around at the moment - I have a FOI^▸ (Freedom of Information) one that shows a Weston Super Mare to Oxford service ... run from Oxford as far as I can tell, so providing also extra stock into the Bristol area without using the depleted fleet of units there.   But then I've heard "all change" again.  The worst bit is the now knowing, perhaps!

I'm at TWSW^» (TravelWatch SouthWest - website) in Taunton tomorrow .... I'll post anything I hear on Sunday.