Bristol-Oxford Direct Service

[whole diary]

[ChrisB]

It would need to be limited (very) stop to attract pax^▸ (passengers) onto the long distance service. No good if its quicker via London... The other stops would need to join their local service & change where necessary

[grahame]

It would need to be limited (very) stop to attract pax^▸ (passengers) onto the long distance service. No good if its quicker via London... The other stops would need to join their local service & change where necessary

Chippenham to Bedford via London - 2 hours and 40 minutes (160 minutes) - from journey planner for tomorrow

Chippenham to Bedford via Didcot and Oxford - 1 hour and 40 minutes (100 minutes) - Journey planner to Oxford and then East / West rail projections.

Even if you add in Royal Wooton Bassett and Wantage stops, I can't see it being slower via London.   And you could save 10 minutes by taking out the reversal at Didcot.

Note that I've taken a worst case example - journeys to Milton Keynes will make a higher proportional gain.   ChrisB - can you give us an example of a journey that would be slowed?

[ChrisB]

Earlier in the thread, there were many other stations listed prior to Oxford....

[TonyK]

It would need to be limited (very) stop to attract pax^▸ (passengers) onto the long distance service. No good if its quicker via London... The other stops would need to join their local service & change where necessary

From Bristol, it would never be quicker via London, nor, I suspect, would it be cheaper. The option to beat is via Didcot. Swindon to Oxford direct would give the train the edge time-wise over the bus. Given the relatively low capacity of the bus, I would imagine that there would be a fair number of car drivers who may look at rail as an alternative to the daily slog and paying some licenced bandit in a car park.

[ChrisB]

Agreed. I suspect quite a flow between those stations

[John R]

I would imagine that there would be a fair number of car drivers who may look at rail as an alternative to the daily slog and paying some licenced bandit in a car park.

Though I don't think Swindon station car park is free, so you're paying for parking either way.

[Oberon]

I suspect this would eventually be a Bristol-Cambridge service given the government's commitment to re-open Bedford-Cambridge. What about timings for that?