Botley Road closed in Oxford: What traders and residents think

While the closure of the road beneath the railway bridge between Frideswide Square and Mill Street has been welcomed by many locals, there remain concerns about how shutting a major arterial route will affect traffic across the city.

Buses will turn around at either side of the bridge and passengers with through-tickets will have to walk through the pedestrian tunnel beneath the bridge to continue their journey.

Buses coming into Oxford from the west will stop and turn around near where the youth hostel previously stood (Image: Oxford Mail)

Cyclists will also be able to use tunnel. The narrow thoroughfare will be overseen by marshals.

The temporary closure of the road - originally expected to start in January and last 12 months - is part of a £161m revamp of the railway station.

Network Rail, which is overseeing the project, says it will see a bigger station built, new track put in, and improvements to the roads around the station.

READ MORE: The Botley Road closure - what we know so far

The railway bridge itself is expected to be replaced next year, when the road will be shut for another six months.

Before that happens, this year almost a dozen utility companies will have to divert infrastructure currently running beneath the existing bridge.

It is hoped the station works will be fully complete by the end of 2024.

How the road under the bridge on Botley Road might look by the time the works are completed. There will be new cycle lanes. Picture: Network Rail (Image: Image: Network Rail)

While the road is shut for the next six months, the emergency services have been told their vehicles will not be able to get under the bridge ‘for safety reasons’. Bosses have pledged to try and make sure response times are not affected.

Following the ruling from Network Rail, Julian Le Vay, a spokesman for residents’ group West Oxford Access, told the Oxford Mail it was ‘quite possible people are going to die because of this’.

On the doorstep this weekend, those living on Botley Road and its side streets raised concerns about the additional time it would take to get to the hospital.

Currently a five mile cross-town trip, when the road shuts today the eight mile route will take drivers around the ring road – likely to be even busier at pinch points like the Wolvercote Roundabout.

Network Rail is understood to be funding a Botley Road ‘Comet’ bus, operating Monday, Wednesday and Friday between 10am and 2pm to ferry passengers with poor mobility into town via the GP surgeries in Jericho and Beaumont Street.

Those the Oxford Mail spoke to on Mill Street, Botley Road and Harley Road this weekend were generally positive about the road closure.

READ MORE: City prepares for Botley Road closure

Complaints about heavy traffic on the Botley Road were widespread. One man, living near the Waitrose superstore, had conducted his own survey – counting 118 cars past his house in a six minute period, the equivalent of almost 1,200 cars an hour.

“I think it’s positive. The station needs better access. The footpath on the station side [underneath the bridge] is narrow,” he said.

But he suggested there was an opportunity for the council to take advantage of lighter traffic on the road to fix the ‘broken’ surface and layout on a road that regularly floods. “They won’t do it because they’ve got no money.”

On Mill Street, the road nearest the railway bridge, a 74-year-old retiree, said: “I’m looking forward to it. You can’t go out at the moment in a car on Saturday or Sunday, really, unless you chose your times very carefully. Otherwise, you’re in a jam.”

The old youth hostel at the junction of Botley and Cripley roads has been demolished Picture: Oxford Mail (Image: Photo: Andy Ffrench)

While like many living in the shadow of Botley Road she hoped the closure would result in quieter traffic, she was less enthusiastic about the noise from the construction works – or plans for occasional night time working.

“I’m having double glazing fitted because I can’t stand the noise in that bedroom up there,” she said, pointing to an upstairs window.

Another woman, speaking to the Oxford Mail from an open first floor window in Mill Street, raised concerns for a friend who worked at Seacourt and would have to get a brace of buses to get home across town late at night.

Across the tracks, in Uni Food and Wine on Frideswide Square they are already counting the cost of the construction works. Construction equipment being stored on the pavement outside shields the shopfront from the other side in the road.  A store assistant feared business was ‘going to suffer very badly’.

Outside, one local customer was more sanguine about the road closure. He lives on one side of the bridge and works a five minute walk away from home – on the other side of the tracks. “As long as pedestrians can pass through here I’m good,” he said.

Rail staff beneath the Botley Road railway bridge Picture: Oxford Mail (Image: Photo: Oxford Mail)

Cllr Susanna Pressel, the city and county councillor for Osney, said a number of things relating to the closure had ‘only just been finalised or even remain to be sorted out’ – causing ‘huge anxiety’ to some, especially those unable to walk or cycle through the tunnel beneath the bridge. Businesses were also ‘worried’, she said.

“However, a lot of residents have told me that they can’t wait for the road under the bridge to close, because at last there will be no congestion and much less pollution in Botley Road,” the councillor added.

Business owner Chris Benton, of Binsey Lane-based cycle courier Pedal and Post said different routes might need to be taken by the firm’s larger cargo bikes. Most, however, will be able to use the tunnel beneath the bridge.

He said of the closure: “It might, actually, almost be an advantage because we won’t get stuck in the Botley Road traffic.”

A Pedal and Post cargo bike in Oxford

Last week, a judge at Oxford’s crown court flagged the road closure with barristers in his attempted murder trial.

Judge Michael Gledhill KC, who has previously bemoaned Oxford’s ‘dreadful’ traffic problems, commiserated with prosecutor Mark Trafford KC about the woes he had faced trying to get to the city from London after the closure of the Oxford-Didcot line following concerns about cracks in the Nuneham viaduct.

“It’s going to get worse on Tuesday,” the judge foretold - citing the Botley Road closure.

From beneath a knitted brow and horse hair wig, Mr Trafford responded: “I hadn’t expected quite so much travel information at twenty past four in the afternoon.”