Oxford Corridor Phase 2 & Platform 5 updates

[JamesT]

One track would add capacity, but two would be better. All I'm saying is that with hindsight they should have left the current bridge where it is.

With an extra two tracks to the west, and a new island platform, you don't need a through platform to the east.

Are you leaving the existing platform 4 in place? The idea of a future through platform at the East is having two through southbound platform faces on an island to allow more services. Having those platforms separated by a bridge would be a lot less convenient.

Raising the elevation by 2m requires 200m of incline at 1%. That's not so much

You mean the station staff car park? Probably. Again, there's a lot more space over the canal than there is under Botley Road. Whoever signed off the work without adequate ground investigation does not deserve to keep the title Civil Engineer.

No, I mean the road immediately to the West of the station that provides access to the housing North of the canal.
Just look at a map, almost immediately North of the platforms is Castle Mill Stream, the bridge carrying the road is right beside the railway lines. You have single digit metres, not 200m so you’re going to need a new bridge over the stream. There’s housing either side, where’s it going?

I agree that they’ve made a pigs ear of the work, but there’s no way that your alternative is going to work. It doesn’t resolve any of the highway issues with the current bridge, and could well hit similar issues trying to dig foundations for a new bridge.

 

[Nicholas43]

The government have agreed to set aside a goodwill pot of £850,000 for small businesses affected by the ongoing works; Network Rail will write to them in due course.

In addition it was revealed the project cost has risen by almost two-thirds to £261 million half to £231 million.* Based on the FAQs linked in post #416 I believe that new figure just covers the Botley Road works rather than Oxfordshire Connect as a whole.

[* BBC correction]

I'm sure that, at the ticketed meeting on 13 June, the current expected cost was said to be £261 million, including (as I understood it) Thames Water's many goes at rerouting the sewer and the water main, the new bridge including a new fifth track on the Osney side, and a new pedestrian bridge on the Oxford side, capable of being converted to carry a putative future new through track on the Oxford side - and, I think, including the £0.85 million to be shared among quite a lot of local businesses. It wasn't clear to me whether the £261 million buys a new track (to be known as 'platform' 5) to the west of the existing platform 4, or a new rail bridge over the Sheepwash Channel. It was stated not to include a new west entrance, with modish retail and café hall (presumably at street level?) and a lift and staircase to platform level. Given that Network Rail, and Keir, and Thames Water, and many other Undertakers, and lots of subcontractors, have had lots of people, and lots of expensive-looking machinery, on site for many many weeks, I don't find £261 million surprising. The wonder is that anyone believed the original costing.

 

[BlueLeanie]

There are plenty of new models of double decker that can fit under Botley Road bridge. It was a myth that buses of the right height weren't available.

It's true, there are plenty of buses that do. Although I do wonder what would happen if some rowdy passengers started to bounce it as it approached the old bridge. This YouTube link shows the *very* tight squeeze that double deckers had fitting under the historic bridge.

Plenty of buses that don't though.

This image shows a former Lothian Buses Double Decker wedged under the old Botley Bridge.

https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/resources/images/13889733.jpg

 

[Zomboid]

Those buses wouldn't go under a new bridge for platform 5. Which is why the whole thing needs doing.

 

[fishwomp]

This image shows a former Lothian Buses Double Decker wedged under the old Botley Bridge.

https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/resources/images/13889733.jpg

Well, we know where the open top bus tours get their buses converted..