Chiltern's plan to re-open BMW line to passenger traffic

[route:oxford]

Chiltern Railways are expected to promulgate their plans to re-open the BMW line to passengers next month.

Full story is in The Oxford Mail:-

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/11556247.Vision__Passenger_trains_could_run_on_Cowley_branch_line/

PASSENGER trains could be running on Oxford’s Cowley branch line within five years, the Oxford Mail can reveal.

Chiltern Railways’ plans to run services along the line for the first time in 50 years are set to be unveiled next month.

The company says it wants to use the line to connect Oxford Station with areas such as Blackbird Leys, Littlemore, Oxford Science Park and the Mini plant.

In an email seen by the Oxford Mail, Chiltern managing director Rob Brighouse said: “While for the last 50 years the line has been used solely for freight, we feel that huge potential stems from the possibility of Chiltern operating passenger services along the line by the end of the decade, perhaps as an extension of our route from London to Oxford which opens in 2016.

“Central to our proposal is the creation of two new stations on the line at Oxford Science Park and Oxford Business Park.

“This development has significant prospects for promoting future economic prosperity for local businesses as well as Oxfordshire as a whole, while providing an innovative and sustainable transport solution.

“It also has huge scope for improving the connectivity of local communities including Littlemore, Cowley and Blackbird Leys to Oxford and beyond, as well as providing a platform for regeneration.”

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Chiltern Railways confirmed it was looking at plans, saying they had “huge potential” to connect communties in south-east Oxford to the city centre.

The company is currently building a new line, expected to open in September 2016, between Oxford and London Marylebone via Bicester, which will include a new station at Water Eaton.

Oxford City Council leader Bob Price said: “It will certainly make it easier for people to commute from Blackbird Leys and Littlemore into the city centre.

“It also means that the development south of Grenoble Road would be more viable.”

The city council has plans to build up to 4,000 homes on land it owns south of Grenoble Road but it has so far been prevented from doing so by the fact the land is in the Green Belt and lies in South Oxfordshire, where the district council is opposed to it.

Gordon Roper, chairman of Blackbird Leys Parish Council, said: “It would be a good idea and could alleviate a lot of traffic problems, especially on a Saturday when people come to the Kassam Stadium. Obviously it is at the early stages at the moment but it would be brilliant.”

Andrew McCallum, secretary of Rail Future’s Thames Valley branch, said: “Rather than occupying space at Oxford, [trains] can run down to Cowley which could take about five minutes, drop people off, come back in another five minutes and then go back to London.”

In April, Oxfordshire County Council leader Ian Hudspeth included the possiblity of reopening the line in his transformation plans for the city’s transport system, which also included a tram system to Oxford Airport.

Speaking of the newly revealed Cowley branch plans, Mr Hudspeth said: “If you are coming into Oxford from Didcot or Bicester and you want to go to the eastern side of the city, your only option is to drive from the station.

“The number one issue is that the line is already there, but we have got to work out its capacity.”

Network Rail spokesman Victoria Bradley said: “The line would need to be upgraded to run passenger services along it and a decision to run passenger services is a matter for the Department for Transport.”

She added that funding for such projects usually came from the Department for Transport, but additional funding could come from other sources such as Chiltern Railways or the county council.

Department for Transport spokeswoman Rose Obianwu said local authorities and the rail industry had “primary responsibility” for looking at how best to reopen old lines.

The Cowley line is currently only used by freight for the Mini plant.

Plant spokeswoman Rebecca Baxter said: “The branch line is part of the Network Rail UK network and any train operator would be able to apply for train paths with Network Rail. We look forward to learning more about Chiltern Railways’ future plans in due course.”

Oxford East MP Andrew Smith said: “It would open up more travel options for local residents and help ease the car commuting pressure to the Science Park and the Business Park, where congestion has been getting worse.”

 

[evergreenadam]

So they will have a South Oxford Parkway too!

Certainly going all out to grab the Oxford traffic from Great Western.

If they kept going from BMW and reopened the former railway line to Princess Risborough they would end up with a very direct service to Oxford from London, much quicker than via Bicester. You could have a panhandle service from London to Oxford, out via Thame and back via Bicester!

 

[ChiefPlanner]

So they will have a South Oxford Parkway too!

Certainly going all out to grab the Oxford traffic from Great Western.

If they kept going from BMW and reopened the former railway line to Princess Risborough they would end up with a very direct service to Oxford from London, much quicker than via Bicester. You could have a panhandle service from London to Oxford, out via Thame and back via Bicester!

Very tricky -there is a housing development on the old formation twixt Cowley and Thame , plus a bat infested tunnel....

 

[edwin_m]

And looking at the map, there is also two motorways, a service station and an industrial estate!

Hope there is capacity to run these trains through Oxford station, as they would otherwise be using north-facing bays and staying clear of the main line.

 

[21C101]

Very tricky -there is a housing development on the old formation twixt Cowley and Thame , plus a bat infested tunnel....

There was a bat infested tunnel on the Bicester route but it has been got over.

Agree it is unlikely, although if the Cowley idea goes ahead a short extension from the bufferstops to an A40/M40 j8 Park and Ride at Wheatley would be an obvious phase 2 (although not very popular in Wheatley I suspect, especially among those who would face compulsory purchase).

 

[higthomas]

Brilliant idea. Normally I'd be very pessimistic about an idea like that, but after being amazed at the work at Bicester I wouldn't put it past them.
It just goes to show that if we are going to have franchises, we'd better make them long ones.

 

[route:oxford]

There was a bat infested tunnel on the Bicester route but it has been got over.

Slight difference in that it was a working tunnel that happened to be popular with bats. The tunnel on this route is a disused tunnel that has been redesignated a bat sanctuary.

Agree it is unlikely, although if the Cowley idea goes ahead a short extension from the bufferstops to an A40/M40 j8 Park and Ride at Wheatley would be an obvious phase 2 (although not very popular in Wheatley I suspect, especially among those who would face compulsory purchase).

Don't worry.

Contrary to popular belief amongst enthusiasts, there is no legal requirement for a reopened route to exactly follow the path of a disused route.

 

[HarleyDavidson]

You could always put a tunnel under Wheatley, the track through Thame whilst it does have a slight impingement, that's not entirely surmountable.

The thing is that I believe that this line when it was open was single with just passing loops at Wheatley & Thame, so unless you can "pinch" a little land either side to make it a double track, you may have considerable capacity constraints.

 

[21C101]

Don't worry.

Contrary to popular belief amongst enthusiasts, there is no legal requirement for a reopened route to exactly follow the path of a disused route.

I know, but when you look at the map it is VERY hilly there with contours looking like an approaching atlantic low isobars.

They chose the original trackbed there for good reasons!

 

[route:oxford]

I know, but when you look at the map it is VERY hilly there with contours looking like an approaching atlantic low isobars.

They chose the original trackbed there for good reasons!

Yes, it avoided a considerable chunk of college owned land.

I'm very familiar with the landscape around there.

 

[The Planner]

Chiltern looked at doing Thame to Cowley a while back and decided it was utterly unfeasible. Any talk of reopening it through Wheatley is fantasy and re-routing through there would need a massive deviation or tunnels due to the steep valley its in. The trackbed is also built on in Tiddington. Total non starter.

 

[CyrusWuff]

Chiltern looked at doing Thame to Cowley a while back and decided it was utterly unfeasible. Any talk of reopening it through Wheatley is fantasy and re-routing through there would need a massive deviation or tunnels due to the steep valley its in. The trackbed is also built on in Tiddington. Total non starter.

Indeed...It was one of the mooted options for EG3 Phase 2 at one point, but obviously the numbers stacked up better for the Bicester Chord scheme.

 

[Bald Rick]

Mr Brighouse is no fool. This will be cheap(ish) as chips, get some external funding to make it happen, and offer good revenue for Chiltern.

As for going to Thame / Risboro' - there is rather a stark difference between a relatively small upgrade of a couple of miles of existing railway in an urban environment, and building 16 miles of brand new railway through the rolling Oxfordshire / Bucks countryside.

 

[mr_jrt]

Nonetheless, the former route is a much shorter and more direct route, and would give a much quicker time to London, even more so if you rebuilt the lost section to modern standards (i.e. higher speed). It might well become an issue if EWR takes off and more paths are required than can be provided by a two-track mixed-traffic railway. Diverting the Chiltern services via Cowley and leaving Oxford to Bicester to EWR services could be one solution, with Chiltern having potential to extend services northwards from Oxford to build further custom...

In more realistic concerns, I hope this gives more impetus to build-in capacity during the proposed Oxford rebuild. Two islands with four roads and two through roads is a great improvement on what is there now, but the previous proposal from times past was for an 8-platform monster, and I can see another east-side island (i.e. connecting any proposed north-facing bays to the occasionally proposed south-facing ones) making sense to keep Chiltern services away from the other routes.

 

[3141]

As stated earlier in the thread, a proposal to reopen the route from Princes Risborough to Oxford via Thame and Cowley was part of the bid in 2000 which led to Chiltern's 20-year franchise.

But the cost of that caused it to be dropped and replaced by the current scheme via a new chord at Bicester.

Another very important factor was that using the route via Cowley would mean northbound trains having to cross other lines south of Oxford, whereas the route approaching Oxford from the north will have its own track and avoid the conflicts.

So if this latest proposal goes ahead I wonder how they hope to avoid conflicting moves south of Oxford.

 

[The Planner]

Things have moved on from that, the independant line at Oxford is long gone and they wil trundle along the Jericho line. Agree that it is going to cause some interesting problems at Kennington Jn and Oxford North if they are suddenly crossing the job twice. People really need to remove the rose tinted spectacles with reopening to Thame though, it really wont happen and EW is unlikely to fill up with 3 minute headways and 100mph running.

 

[Bald Rick]

Nonetheless, the former route is a much shorter and more direct route, and would give a much quicker time to London, even more so if you rebuilt the lost section to modern standards (i.e. higher speed).

Even if built to 100mph, and a train ran non-stop Oxford to London, it would struggle to beat 45 mins. And that's only 10 min quicker than Oxford to Paddington including a Reading stop. Given the numbers of passengers who would benefit, it will never, ever wash it's face.

 

[tripleseis]

Being a former Blackbird Leys resident this is certainly a welcome development. If it's going to be served by trains, then, (conflicts at Kennington aside), it makes perfect sense to just extend the Marylebone services down to Cowley with the possibility of an extra Oxford-Cowley shuttle here and there for busier times. If the line were to be converted to tram-train use then you could add more stops at Redbridge P&R, Heyford Hill (for Sainsbury's), Littlemore/Minchery Farm (for the Science Park, OU stadium etc), Blackbird Leys and Cowley. An extension to Horspath would be nice as well. Wheatley would be great also but too much of a challenge as much of the line has been built on through the village and the bat tunnel. It would have to be along a new alignment. Obviously anything tram like would have to be part of a wider tram network serving places like Witney, Kidlington, Yarnton and Woodstock.

People really need to remove the rose tinted spectacles with reopening to Thame though, it really wont happen and EW is unlikely to fill up with 3 minute headways and 100mph running.

Thame would only really benefit from re-opening the line to Princes Risborough anyway. The track bed is mostly intact (apart from being a public footpath now), and it isn't really that far to High Wycombe and London.

 

[route:oxford]

Between Kennington Junction and Oxford there is near enough continuously 4 tracks all the way.

Other than the two main running tracks, the rest are mostly long sidings.

Is there any formal reason that Chiltern & Network Rail would be forbidden to realign and rebuild the route with two fasts and two slows?

 

[21C101]

Between Kennington Junction and Oxford there is near enough continuously 4 tracks all the way.

Other than the two main running tracks, the rest are mostly long sidings.

Is there any formal reason that Chiltern & Network Rail would be forbidden to realign and rebuild the route with two fasts and two slows?

Maybe that it would involve all sorts of horrible conflicting movements at each end of the four track section?

If it is ever four tracked to Didcot then it would make sense to pair it to match the main line to Paddington, however this still leaves conflicting movements north of Oxford, and of course the Cowley and Bicester lines would both merge with the fast lines.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Even if built to 100mph, and a train ran non-stop Oxford to London, it would struggle to beat 45 mins. And that's only 10 min quicker than Oxford to Paddington including a Reading stop. Given the numbers of passengers who would benefit, it will never, ever wash it's face.

Not to mention that it would not serve Oxford North Parkway, which as well as being at one of Oxfords park and ride nodes, is effectively a reopening of Kidlington station on a different site (population 13,500). Thame only has a population of 11,500 and a parkway station less than 2 miles away which is virtually as good as in the town in railway terms (little if any further from the town centre than Yeovil Junction and Crewkerne stations for example).

There would also be the problem that if you went via Thame you would not serve Bicester (population 23,500) and therefore halve it's train service to London.

It strikes me that the best solution for Cowley would be as part of a tram train network running from Carteron via Witney, Eynsham, Oxford and Cowley to Wheately park and ride. Use of tram trains would make diversions round the built on bits of both lines much easier.

As for Tunnels reserved for Bats, don't get me started. With any luck they will all get culled once Ebola gets into UK bat populations.....

 

[route:oxford]

Maybe that it would involve all sorts of horrible conflicting movements at each end of the four track section?

It was also reported in "The Oxford Mail" earlier this month that Network Rail had an aspiration for a flying junction at Oxford North. (As well as one East of Diddyland.)

I suppose it just comes down to whether or not 4 running tracks between Kennington Junction with the 2 slow tracks (city side) tending to be used by Chiltern Services and slows and 2 tracks (Osney side) tending to be used by the XC & Greater Western services) would make signalling more difficult than just 2 tracks for the same traffic.

 

[21C101]

It was also reported in "The Oxford Mail" earlier this month that Network Rail had an aspiration for a flying junction at Oxford North. (As well as one East of Diddyland.)

I suppose it just comes down to whether or not 4 running tracks between Kennington Junction with the 2 slow tracks (city side) tending to be used by Chiltern Services and slows and 2 tracks (Osney side) tending to be used by the XC & Greater Western services) would make signalling more difficult than just 2 tracks for the same traffic.

It would because with UP UP DOWN DOWN lines where two tracks split/merge you have no conflict between up and down services.

With UP DOWN UP DOWN formation, up and down trains come into conflict where the four tracks merge/split into two

 

[The Ham]

Even if Chiltern want to reopen the line to shorten the time to London on their services they wouldn't want the expense of doing so during this franchise. Therefore they are likely looking at ways to expand their services without too mich.

With regards to the viability of the reopening, although the full reopening would provide the most benefit for traveling to London, it doesn't mean that those benefits would justify the cost. Having said that, there could be justification to connect settlements back to the rail network by only being able to go via Oxford (at least in the medium term).

Even with faster journeys to London by going to Paddington, a lot of the time advantage could be lost in having to change trains. Also there is the issue of cost, if there is 15min difference but a £10 saving there will be a number of people who would use the longer, direct and cheaper service.

Although I wouldn't expect any such development before the next franchise.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Not to mention that it would not serve Oxford North Parkway, which as well as being at one of Oxfords park and ride nodes, is effectively a reopening of Kidlington station on a different site (population 13,500).

There was once the Blenheim and Woodstock branch line, with its two stations, that ran from the area of the line near to the former Kidlington station.

 

[The Planner]

Being a former Blackbird Leys resident this is certainly a welcome development. If it's going to be served by trains, then, (conflicts at Kennington aside), it makes perfect sense to just extend the Marylebone services down to Cowley with the possibility of an extra Oxford-Cowley shuttle here and there for busier times. If the line were to be converted to tram-train use then you could add more stops at Redbridge P&R, Heyford Hill (for Sainsbury's), Littlemore/Minchery Farm (for the Science Park, OU stadium etc), Blackbird Leys and Cowley. An extension to Horspath would be nice as well. Wheatley would be great also but too much of a challenge as much of the line has been built on through the village and the bat tunnel.

This is where the proposal makes me scratch my head, Blackbird Leys has a shedload of buses to Cowley and Oxford city centre where most people will want to go and to be fair to the place, I can't see a massive demand for train travel to London or elsewhere from there. No one would catch the train to Oxford as the station as we know is nowhere near the centre. The line is not really close to Cowley either which has just as many buses if not more. You would actually be making more people get i to their cars to get to the station. I can see the peak time business park use but in the off peak I cant see anything more than an hourly service.

 

[jimm]

If I had a pound for every time that someone on here starts off about reopening Oxford-Princes Risborough... please stop, it is never, ever going to happen, End of story.

FGW is also rumoured to be looking using Cowley for a cross-Oxford shuttle from somewhere up the Cotswold Line, probably Hanborough, but I dont imagine either service will be happening any time soon, especially given the dire warnings in the draft western route study about capacity post-2019 between Oxford North and Didcot.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

This is where the proposal makes me scratch my head, Blackbird Leys has a shedload of buses to Cowley and Oxford city centre where most people will want to go and to be fair to the place, I can't see a massive demand for train travel to London or elsewhere from there. No one would catch the train to Oxford as the station as we know is nowhere near the centre. The line is not really close to Cowley either which has just as many buses if not more. You would actually be making more people get i to their cars to get to the station. I can see the peak time business park use but in the off peak I cant see anything more than an hourly service.

It's not really about serving Blackbird Leys or Cowley residents getting in and out of the centre, it's about trying to get people from outside the city heading to and from the BMW plant and the business and science parks out of their cars, so they aren't clogging the roads into and around Oxford.

The insane price of housing in the city and the pushing of growth since the 1970s on to the likes of Bicester, Carterton, Didcot, Wantage/Grove and Witney means huge numbers of people commute using the roads. Roadworks in Oxford in recent days have caused mayhem and a lot of people have turned to the trains as an alternative where it's available. There have been 200+ cars parked at Hanborough some days, many of them people from Witney and Carterton fed up of getting stuck on the A40. Add a few more and all the 190 extra parking spaces added at Hanborough last year will already be used up.

 

[route:oxford]

This is where the proposal makes me scratch my head, Blackbird Leys has a shedload of buses to Cowley and Oxford city centre where most people will want to go and to be fair to the place, I can't see a massive demand for train travel to London or elsewhere from there. No one would catch the train to Oxford as the station as we know is nowhere near the centre. The line is not really close to Cowley either which has just as many buses if not more. You would actually be making more people get i to their cars to get to the station. I can see the peak time business park use but in the off peak I cant see anything more than an hourly service.

There are loads of buses, it's true. The service takes absolutely forever though. Allow over an hour during the peak. Longer than it takes to walk it.

I'd certainly use it. It would be joyous to be able to disembark from a service arriving into Oxford and board a local service to East Oxford round to Science or Business Park. A few £1 for a taxi instead of £18 will be a pleasure.

Don't forget, "the peak" traffic period is quite extensive, the 4000 staff who work at BMW operate a three shift system. So the first peak is at around 6am, the 9000 staff at the business park peak at 8am-9am, next BMW peak at 2pm, next business park peak at 4pm-6pm, next BMW peak at 10pm. Then there is the off-peak peak around 10am...

Then there is the Science Park and Unipart as well as other major employers nearby.

 

[The Planner]

Doesnt solve the traffic from the east though.

 

[route:oxford]

Doesnt solve the traffic from the east though.

There is an opportunity to improve public transport infrastructure to a considerable degree to an area with high employment but limited road infrastructure.

I'm not sure if refusing to condone improvements simply because they don't improve for everyone is helpful.

 

[Rich McLean]

There has been a suggestion on another forum that there could be plans to re-build the line from Oxford to Witney.

However, it has been identified, that the Roundabout at Swindford which joins the road into Enysham town is an issue, along with a stretch of the B4443 and a few buildings at that end.

At the Witney end, the only feasable area you could place a terminus stations is at Ducklington by Witney Lakes. Would be an execent locations for a parkway station, with a large car park to entice cars off the road and onto the trains just off the A40, which would go a long way at reducing congestion on the A40 into Oxford in the Long Term. The Line would stop an Eynsham en route, and would be start to finish in about 10 minutes, creating a 30 min frequency using just one unit with a 5 minute turn around at either end.