Did GWR ever form the intention to quadruple track Oxford to Didcot? I'm thinking of the way that line increasingly sat at the centre of a set of converging lines - at first, to the south, from two directions on the GW main line itself - and the Didcot Newbury and Southampton line then came onto the scene - and then to the north, the lines to Rugby Birmingham and then to Worcester and to Wolverhampton - and later to Fairford, and also the Banbury to Woodford Halse link. This collection joined by a double track railway.

Perhaps the relief of this stretch by the building of the 1910 line via Bicester took the focus elsewhere from any ambition to quadruple the track south to Didcot.

Was there an intention though? Plans, or perhaps an early intention to route the Great Western Main Line itself via Oxford?

Turning to the present day: the relieving line via Thame long closed, a busier network ... and there's Oxford, still connected to Didcot by a double track railway with three 'Inconvenient' intermediate stations, no offence intended. There must be a ghost of the 'If only' here, and also, how those stations avoided being zapped I don't know.

Mark