What happened to the 'pause' or whatever they called it of that part of the electrification?
It is still paused, but the piling was done some years ago, because, as jyte says, Oxford was initially supposed to have electric trains running by last December. Overhead wires will be installed from Didcot up to Appleford this year as part of the preparations for electric services to start serving Didcot next January but that is as near to Oxford as the wires will get for at least another couple of years.
I think someone pointed out earlier that Didcot-Oxford was the first section to be piled before they realised they had to remodell Oxford station before they could electrify it, and that hadn't yet been done.
Also, the Sectional Appendix (which I've been using to make the map) makes it look like the curve that serves platforms 3-5 from Oxford (I forgot its name) is now actually electrified to about half way along. Is that correct?
I wish people would stop confusing electrification of the Oxford station area with the potential building of a new and expanded station and associated extra trackwork this would require - a shiny new station is a nice idea and long overdue, but funding to do something on the scale the city and county councils seem to want has yet to be found.
The key issue holding back electrification at Oxford at present is the need to renew the signalling. The existing kit is life-expired and not immunised against 25kv but work to replace it has been put back several times.
The most recent version of the electrification plan I saw at a Network Rail event last year essentially involves wiring up the existing layout at the station and the surrounding area as far north as Wolvercot junction (where the Cotswold Line leaves the Banbury route), with a few modest changes, several of which are already in hand and will be completed ahead of or in conjunction with the resignalling.
These include relocating some points at Hinksey and just south of the station, remodelling the stabling sidings north of the station (and access to them), making Oxford North junction a full double track junction to meet the needs of East-West Rail services, plus the commissioning of the extended down loop line from Oxford North up to Wolvercote village.
On the curve at Didcot the wires end somewhere south of the Transfer Shed at the railway centre (the long building at the north end of the centre site) but as I usually pass on expresses on the avoiding line, can't be more exact than that, I'm afraid.
