RESIDENTS of a south Oxfordshire village fear they could lose their train station after cuts left them without afternoon trains to Oxford.

First Great Western withdrew two off-peak weekday services from Appleford to Oxford and three to London via Didcot, when it launched its summer timetable two weeks ago. Residents claimed they received no warning of the changes.

At the same time two off-peak services have been axed each way at Culham station.

The cuts mean there is now no service from Appleford to Oxford between 11am and 5pm and no train from Culham to Oxford from 10.01am to 4.01pm.

FGW said the changes were made because very few people used the services affected and to help keep other trains on the busy Oxford-Didcot line running on time.

Eighty people held a protest at Appleford station against the cuts, which they fear could lead to them losing the 160-year-old station.

Dr Angela Jones, 50, of Main Road, Appleford said: “We feel frustrated, angry, let down and worried that we might lose all our services.

“We think this is a move by the company to cut services to us altogether in the long term and that really worries us.”

Dr Jones, a GP who works with homeless people in London and uses the station every day, said: “It’s an outrage. We would be cut off if we lost the station.”

Twenty years ago Appleford and Culham had hourly trains to Oxford and London.

The only other public transport in Appleford is a twice-weekly bus to Abingdon.

Stuart Fisher, 59, said: “FGW have been awarded the franchise to operate this service, not to change it to an express service or to provide an ever-deteriorating service so passengers are driven away, justifying the next stage in the closedown.

“Losing a large part of the rail service without consultation is causing much anger.”

Appleford station was used by former Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, who lived in Sutton Courtenay.

Matthew Sparling, 54, of Courtiers Green, Clifton Hampden, said: “First Great Western said they did a survey and not enough people used it during the course of the day. What about the public service side of it though? Don’t they receive a Government subsidy to run a decent rail service?”

A spokesman for FGW said: “We have no plans to stop running trains from Appleford and Culham stations.

“We’re required to operate a minimum level of service within our contract, which we are currently exceeding.

“The number of people who wrote in to comment about the removal of these stops vastly exceeds those using the services regularly.

“This is a particularly congested part of the network and the timings of trains are very tight. Although the changes will inconvenience a small number of people, we have to balance this against the positive impact it will have on the vast majority of our customers’ journeys.”

cwalker@oxfordmail.co.uk