Rail firm looks for right line

Rather than a dramatic statement in stone, such as the classical portico of, say, Huddersfield, in Yorkshire — once described by the late Sir John Betjeman as “the most splendid station façade in England” — Oxford has had to make do with a succession of stations of dubious merit.

The Great Western and London & North Western railways both threw up a basic timber structure in the 19th century, which now stands in Buckinghamshire Railway Museum after being taken down to make way for Oxford University’s Said Business School.

The GWR’s 1852 station was replaced by another timber building in 1910-11, swept away in 1971 to make way for a prefabricated structure. It succumbed to rot by the end of the 1980s, when British Rail put up the current building.

Functional, but hardly an architectural gem, it did nothing to deal with the limitations imposed by the basic layout trackside, with just two through platforms and one dead-end bay at the north end to handle an ever-increasing stream of trains using the station from the early 1990s onwards.

Now it seems Network Rail has grasped the nettle as part of plans to enhance capacity on the north-south rail corridor through the county, under its draft Great Western Route Utilisation Strategy, published this month.

Faced with the need to resignal the Oxford area in 2015, a projected 31 per cent rise in rail traffic in the region over the next decade and extra trains between Oxford and London on the existing route to Paddington, Britain’s rail infrastructure company has come up with a radical plan to provide a station fit for the 21st century — and a lot more, too, in order to address what it calls “the pinch-point that the current Oxford layout represents”.

The pressure on Oxford’s station will be hugely increased by Chiltern Railway’s plans for a new £200m Oxford-Bicester-London rail service, with the company hoping to run services to Marylebone by 2013, promising two trains an hour each way throughout the day.] The aim, says Chiltern, is to offer an alternative to the M40 and A34, no less.

The scheme, dubbed Evergreen 3, would also see a new station built at the Water Eaton park-and-ride, just outside Kidlington, to avoid many rail passengers having to clog up Oxford’s roads. At speeds of up to 100mph, typical journey times would be less than an hour between Water Eaton and London, and 15 minutes between Bicester and Oxford.

The case for improving Oxford station has also been further boosted by the promise of agreement on the long-awaited east-west rail link to Milton Keynes and Bedford, and for the more optimistic, even to Cambridge.

Against this background, the far-reaching Network Rail blueprint for the development of rail services over the next decade includes a whole array of measures, suggesting an era of investment and expansion of railway services in Oxfordshire unprecedented in recent times.

Action is promised to deal with capacity problems between Didcot and Oxford, with trains between London, Oxford and the Cotswold Line, which is funnelled into a largely two-track railway alongside passenger and freight services between the South Coast and the West Midlands.

The strategy recommends creating a four-track railway through Oxford from Radley in the south to Wolvercot Junction, on the northern outskirts of Oxford, where the Cotswold Line to Worcester diverges from the Oxford-Banbury line. This could be carried out in conjunction with the signal renewal in six years’ time.

It also proposes new loops to allow passenger trains to overtake freight services just north of Didcot and redoubling of the section of the Cotswold Line through Hanborough to Charlbury, to join up with a section of the line that will be redoubled next year.

Chris Bates, chairman of Cherwell Rail Users group, said: “The report certainly seems pretty comprehensive. We have to hope that the government of the day will fund the plan in its entirety.

“The Oxford pinch-point is very well known and it needs to be sorted out. The complete dualling of the Cotswold Line is very welcome, along with the extra platforms at Oxford. At present 4.7m passengers a year are passing through Oxford and that is only going to go up.”

Although planning is at an early stage, because the strategy forms part of the process for determining railway funding from 2014-19, Network Rail has already carried out computer modelling suggesting Oxford needs a station with at least four through platforms for passenger trains and two extra tracks for freight services to pass through.

A key issue that has yet to be addressed is how these could be fitted into the existing station site, where space to expand is limited after the construction of the Said Business School just to the east.

Short of demolishing the existing station buildings it is hard to see how the current site could be adapted, especially with extra platforms required for Chiltern’s services.

Dr Ian East, a spokesman for the Oxford-Bicester Rail Action Group, said questions remain to be answered.

“There is clearly concern about the capacity of Oxford station and the need for considerable growth, particularly if Chiltern Railway’s plans go ahead. But they will have their work cut out to make this work, with Network Rail talking about putting in lines outside both platforms at Oxford. There could be a major impact on residents if a line is taken on the other side of platform two. The issue of what is going to happen to the bridge over Botley Road will be another major source of contention.”

Oxfordshire County Council, however, believes Oxford residents have most reason to welcome the proposals.

Ed Webster, of the county council’s transport team, said: “Oxford’s station has been neglected of major investment for many years and this is a rare opportunity to provide the facility that Oxford needs and deserves. These plans help address existing congestion on the rail network that can cause frustrating delay and unreliability on train services through Oxford.

“They will also help to ensure that rail is able to play a major role in getting people into the city for years to come, helping to boost the economy and supporting development proposed across the county.

“It is not just transport that will benefit. The redevelopment of Oxford’s railway station can play a major role in the renaissance of Oxford's West End. Again, the county council will be working with Network Rail to maximise these opportunities by ensuring that the station is not just functional in transport terms, but is a quality transport interchange that complements other development in the West End and provides a world-class gateway to a world-class city.

“Oxfordshire County Council will be working very closely with Network Rail to ensure that these proposals are delivered in such a way that will provide most benefit for residents of Oxfordshire. Clearly with so many proposals, including electrification, Chiltern’s plan to run services between London Marylebone and Oxford and the east-west rail proposals that could see trains running from Oxfordshire cross country to Milton Keynes, it is important to ensure these are delivered in a co-ordinated way.”

County Hall had commissioned a report into the situation and in 2004 consultants Arup proposed building a new four-platform station to the south of the current site, where the tracks pass close to Oxpens.

However, this idea was put on the back-burner.

Some may even wonder whether this could put the idea of a new station at Oxpens back on the agenda? There are certainly other options.

One possibility could be to move much of the station complex to the carriage sidings area, where there is room to provide extra platforms and tracks, which could be reached via a bridge over the Sheepwash Channel from a new station building on the site of the former parcels depot.

This approach would have the virtue of retaining the present bus terminus and short-stay car parking, using the existing access from Frideswide Square.

But the draft strategy sets out how the rail infrastructure firm plans to cope with a forecast 31 per cent rise in demand for passenger and freight services in the Thames Valley and West of England by 2019, when almost 100m passengers are predicted to be travelling Great Western.

In addition to addressing pinch-points like Oxford, the new strategy also focuses on easing on-train crowding, the remodelling of Reading, the Intercity Express Programme and the electrification of main lines, including the Paddington-Oxford route.

Great Western will be consulting on its new draft strategy document until November 27, with the final document to be published in early 2010. It will then be submitted to the Department of Transport.

Meanwhile, the company has just set out details of a complex two-year project aimed at transferring 50,000 container freight journeys a year from the UK’s roads to the railway.

It could involve major infrastructure work on routes into Didcot, Oxford and Banbury from the South Coast in the new year to ensure bridges and tunnels are big enough for large containers.

Things do certainly appear to be beginning to move in the right direction.

But never forget that when it comes to Oxford’s station, delays can be measured not in years but in working lifetimes of commuters.