That's a very interesting photograph, with competing freight companies' locomotives apparently working the same train, but back on topic, the fact that the train ran to time and did not delay anything proves there is some capacity on the route. Even a couple of diverted XC trains each way per day would be very popular once people start taking their Easter breaks in Dorset and the students of Oxford are on the move.
In what way is a train that would normally run via the blocked line that is the subject of this thread being diverted via another line not on topic? Especially when people on here keep going on about using the said route for diversions, you included.
Since we still have two months to go until Easter, let's see what happens in the meantime. And I would venture to suggest that any Oxford student who can manage to get their luggage to Oxford station and across from the main entrance to platform 2 to get a northbound train could probably manage to get said luggage off a train at Banbury, on to a coach in the station forecourt and then off a coach at Leamington Spa and back on a train there, even it is a bit of an inconvenience.
I've never said you could not run some XC services via the Cotswold Line, route clearance of Voyagers and availability of FGW conductor drivers permitting, but such trains would be difficult to path, and if you were going to go the trouble of doing it, then it would need to be at a decent frequency to make it attractive to passengers, not a couple of diverted trains that would no more than a gesture and irrelevant if they did not fit in with the times people wanted/needed to travel - and would need about two hours to get between Oxford and Birmingham, so no time advantage over the train-bus-train option.
And if people simply must go to Dorset for their Easter break, the via London option using Virgin/SWT seems the obvious way to go if the XC route is still blocked - and only part of the journey on trains with smelly toilets as a bonus.
