Thanks, - very wet there, was it not?
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Chiltern Oxford Link completed
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Thanks, - very wet there, was it not?
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Andyjs247
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Does anybody know when the new Bicester chord at is due to be completed and open to traffic? I gather the main works in the Bicester area will continue until December 2014 - this is according to the somewhat vague information here. It is presumably when the chord will be complete.
I understand the point work for the new Bicester South Junction on the Chiltern main line was put in last weekend although it looks like there is still much work to do on the formation of the chord itself to build up the levels. You can't see too much of the site from the road at the moment. However, the public footpath which crosses the construction site (currently closed) will provide a better view. This path will reopen at the beginning of May following construction of a footbridge over the chord (this could well become a popular location for photographs as it should have good views of the Chiltern main line also!)
As MK Tom suggests in #595, the MOD traffic for Bicester will be coming in via Claydon from 19 May, according to realtime trains. It will allow the main works between Bicester Town and Oxford Parkway/Water Eaton to begin.
Work continues apace in the town - in the vicinity of Bicester Town station and also at Tubbs Crossing which is also being replaced by a footbridge. Temporary buffer stops have appeared west of the A41. Track has been lifted in the station area and what will eventually become a car park off London Road has been surfaced to form a contractors compound and site access.
I understand the point work for the new Bicester South Junction on the Chiltern main line was put in last weekend although it looks like there is still much work to do on the formation of the chord itself to build up the levels. You can't see too much of the site from the road at the moment. However, the public footpath which crosses the construction site (currently closed) will provide a better view. This path will reopen at the beginning of May following construction of a footbridge over the chord (this could well become a popular location for photographs as it should have good views of the Chiltern main line also!)
As MK Tom suggests in #595, the MOD traffic for Bicester will be coming in via Claydon from 19 May, according to realtime trains. It will allow the main works between Bicester Town and Oxford Parkway/Water Eaton to begin.
Work continues apace in the town - in the vicinity of Bicester Town station and also at Tubbs Crossing which is also being replaced by a footbridge. Temporary buffer stops have appeared west of the A41. Track has been lifted in the station area and what will eventually become a car park off London Road has been surfaced to form a contractors compound and site access.
According to Chiltern's press release issued when trains stopped running last month - see their website - services between Marylebone and the parkway station north of Oxford will start in "summer 2015", presumably giving themselves wriggle room in case the engineers find the going harder than expected.
The Planner
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The chord is only going in now as it all kicked off over the access to the MoD, sooner they get that open the sooner the freights don't have to try and get up to Claydon. Saves a lot of journey time.
MK Tom
Established Member
Oh so there'll just be a short period of running via Claydon until the chord is in place and then the MOD trains will come in via the chord?
The Planner
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Thats the plan.
fgwrich
Established Member
Oh dear. A short piece on BBC South Today said that trains will run over this line at 100MPH. I don't think I want to be on any of those trains running at that speed considering the chords designed speed is supposed to be 50 at max.
Didn't really consist of anything new that we didn't know either, just a reporter standing on the start of the chord, the usual mix of correct and incorrect facts - Just over a year until services start running from Oxford to London and an interview with a manager from Chiltern.
Didn't really consist of anything new that we didn't know either, just a reporter standing on the start of the chord, the usual mix of correct and incorrect facts - Just over a year until services start running from Oxford to London and an interview with a manager from Chiltern.
The Planner
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Chord is 40mph, mainline to around ½ mile south of Oxford Parkway is 100mph.
MK Tom
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If they did 100mph round the chord (aside from falling off it) they wouldn't be able to stop in time for Bicester Town!
cjp
Member
When the line was closed last Saturday I took as few pics from the air and here are a couple of better ones - I just used my phone and snapped away blindly <g>
It was bit murky but they give quite a good impression of how things will be. The EW line is seen at the bottom of the pictures with the line towards Thame heading off towards the top in each instance
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Andyjs247
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I see Patrick McLoughlin was there as well today - not really much in the way of new information though. But at least they kept their feet dry.
It's good to know the passenger service will start in September 2015. But they didn't actually say when the chord would open. It would need to be completed before September, not least to allow for driver training etc in advance of the launch. And it would also be beneficial if the MOD freight can go that way. The freight will take roughly 2 hours to get from Princes Risborough to Bicester going the long way via Aylesbury and a reversal at Claydon. At a guess, going direct via the chord would save maybe 90 minutes journey time - it would no doubt make operation simpler.
I'm wondering if any of the stone trains to Banbury Road will come via Bicester also. Main work between Oxford and Oxford Parkway seems to be from April 2015 to March 2016.
I was posting in a bit of a hurry and was only referring to the opening date for the passenger service.
A lot of what happens and when between now and the start of passenger services remains rather vague. Chiltern still haven't served compulsory purchase orders on business units on land they need at Bicester Town.
http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/archive...purchase_orders_will_arrive_for_station_plan/
And there is a website which is meant to update residents about what work is going on, but it seems a bit lacking in information so far.
http://bicestertooxfordcollaboration.com/
A lot of what happens and when between now and the start of passenger services remains rather vague. Chiltern still haven't served compulsory purchase orders on business units on land they need at Bicester Town.
http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/archive...purchase_orders_will_arrive_for_station_plan/
And there is a website which is meant to update residents about what work is going on, but it seems a bit lacking in information so far.
http://bicestertooxfordcollaboration.com/
The Planner
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The chord has to open first and a lot lot earlier than Sept next year or DB and the MoD will throw the toys out.
I heard that the chord was due to be completed around September this year.
The paths for the Didcot-Bicester workings via Claydon Loop are already on RTT from May 19 and refer to the workings as SSuX 19/5/2014 - 12/12/2014, no doubt allowing some margin for error!
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/H34972/2014/05/19/advanced
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/H34971/2014/05/19/advanced
The Planner
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WTT workings for all of the May timetable, easiest way of doing it.
Cherry_Picker
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It's probably already been answered in this thread. In fact I've probably been told and have managed to forget, but what are the names of the two junctions going to be?
The Planner
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Bicester South on the Chiltern mainline, Gavray Jn on E-W, I think....
Andyjs247
Member
Just been reading this article which appeared in the Oxford Mail last Friday. I didn't really understand the point of Patrick McLoughlin and Chiltern Railway's MD Rob Brighouse visiting Bicester on Thursday. However, it seems they were (re-) launching the start of work on the new Bicester chord.
And there was me thinking work had already started - they have actually been on site since August. And they will build a new link between Bicester Town and Bicester North Stations
!
In a previous press release, Chiltern Railways had said that construction of the chord would take six months. Over the next five months, the level of the embankment will be built up by 7m at the Bicester South Junction end where it joins the Chiltern line apparently. So perhaps it means that the line could be completed by September?
They also mentioned in the article that the London Road level crossing will be closed next week between 24th and 29th of March whilst 20m of track is laid. This sounds as if it will be the first bit of double track.
And there was me thinking work had already started - they have actually been on site since August. And they will build a new link between Bicester Town and Bicester North Stations
!In a previous press release, Chiltern Railways had said that construction of the chord would take six months. Over the next five months, the level of the embankment will be built up by 7m at the Bicester South Junction end where it joins the Chiltern line apparently. So perhaps it means that the line could be completed by September?
They also mentioned in the article that the London Road level crossing will be closed next week between 24th and 29th of March whilst 20m of track is laid. This sounds as if it will be the first bit of double track.
RobLawrence
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Two quick questions about likely (season) ticketing policy - and I appreciate this is in the 'infrastructure and stations' thread, so apols if there is already a relevant discussion.
Will 'Bicester Stations' become a like-for-like replacement destination for season-ticket holders (like me)? To put it a different way, could I pick up services to London from either station on an equivalently priced Bicester to Marylebone annual season?
Secondly, how might Chiltern chose to price its seasons? What latitude does it have to set its own prices? I note that presently, commuters from Oxford and Islip (and, theoretically Bicester Town) pay £5,436 annually. Bicester North commuters pay about £800 less (£4604). So could we expect Chiltern to offer Oxford/Islip commuters a big saving on 'via Bicester only' season tickets? Would that make such tickets comparable in price to Bicester North ones?
Insights valued. Speculation not unwelcome!
Will 'Bicester Stations' become a like-for-like replacement destination for season-ticket holders (like me)? To put it a different way, could I pick up services to London from either station on an equivalently priced Bicester to Marylebone annual season?
Secondly, how might Chiltern chose to price its seasons? What latitude does it have to set its own prices? I note that presently, commuters from Oxford and Islip (and, theoretically Bicester Town) pay £5,436 annually. Bicester North commuters pay about £800 less (£4604). So could we expect Chiltern to offer Oxford/Islip commuters a big saving on 'via Bicester only' season tickets? Would that make such tickets comparable in price to Bicester North ones?
Insights valued. Speculation not unwelcome!
Bicester stations will be grouped.
No idea on season prices. Lots of factors to weigh up (eg competing with M40 coaches, not just with FGW) and Chiltern isn't going to be in any hurry to show its hand on fares generally, with 18 months to go to the first trains.
CarltonA
Member
Good, looking forward to a bit of freight passing through that does not stink of garbage.
Bicester Stations is pretty much a certainty, otherwise they'll be forever swapping tickets if passengers miss a Bicester Town train and the next one's going to Bicester North (and vice versa). I'd guess the Bicester Village Shuttle will probably be withdrawn though, given the proximity of Bicester Town to the Village.
Assuming First Great Western retain the "Any Permitted" flows, I would guess that Chiltern will create "via High Wycombe" flows for relevant stations to match pricing North of Hatton. What level they'd be set at remains to be seen, of course.
Class 170101
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I can't see the bus from Biceser North to Bicester Village being withdrawn because there will still be people from north of Bicester North that would still use it. Additionally what is the split of London services between North and Town going to be? If there are more services to North compared to Town then I cannot see the bus being withdrawn.
At one point, the plan was to divert the current xx:18 and xx:48 Bicester/Banbury terminators to Oxford in the existing paths, presumably adding Bicester North calls to the xx:15 Birmingham services to maintain the PSR (specified as 7 trains per 2 hours off-peak to Bicester North or Town Mondays to Fridays, 3 per hour on Saturdays and Sundays).
As for the continued existence of the shuttle, I would be surprised if there were sufficient passengers travelling to Bicester Village from Kings Sutton and beyond to commercially justify its retention. It can't be cheap to run 6bph for 12 hours a day, 363 days a year!
There are quite a lot of passengers from north of Bicester heading to Bicester Village who use the train, from the West Midlands in particular, so I'm sure some sort of shuttle bus will continue but the frequency is bound to be reduced once the main passenger flow from London is re-routed to Bicester Town from next year.
I've wondered whether, in the longer term, a new station is needed at the crossover point (like Tamworth), using (say) the Wickes site.
joeykins82
Member
But that'd prevent the trains using the new chord from calling which I suspect would meet with resistance from Chiltern! I don't know if a triangular station could be built because presumably there's a gradient after the chord diverges from the EW line
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No.
Useless location next to a lot of industrial sheds, nowhere near the town centre, Bicester Village, or any main roads, and the far side of the town from where the current big housing development is happening and where the next one will be.
And utterly pointless as a rail traffic interchange.
MK Tom
Established Member
Bicester Town is already about as well located for the town centre as a station can be. I don't see any logic in a station completely out of reach of it. It wouldn't create any journeys that can't just as easily be done via Oxford.
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