The OBRAG Website » Chiltern Railways

Date set for inquiry into new rail link

OBRAG admin — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 14:22:20 +0000

THE public inquiry into Chiltern Railway’s £260m Oxford-Bicester-London rail link will start on 2 November 2010.

For more details, click here to read the article from the Bicester Advertiser.

Steam engine marks 100 years of Bicester line

OBRAG admin — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 12:02:16 +0000

The Oxford Times has an article about the chance to see a steam train at Bicester North at 10:30 and 15:10 this Saturday. It provides an interesting background to Chiltern Railways who will take over the Oxford-Bicester service, which is also mentioned.

Warning over plan for second Oxford-London rail route

OBRAG admin — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 12:01:37 +0000

Click here for this article from the Bicester Advertiser.

Article from Rail Magazine issue 643

OBRAG admin — Wed, 12 May 2010 20:19:14 +0000

Click the following link to read an article from Rail Magazine about Chiltern Rail’s plans for electrification of their line:
Rail 643
The current edition of Rail magazine also has an 8-page article on Chiltern Railways.

Minutes from meeting with Chiltern Railways

OBRAG admin — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 20:18:10 +0000

The minutes from Monday’s meeting with Chiltern Railways can be found here:
Minutes – Chiltern 19-04-2010.pdf

A short presentation was also given – the slides are available here:
Presentation 2010-04-19.pdf
(due to the large file size, some slides have been removed – the contents of these can be found on the Chiltern Railways website).

Oxfordshire train journey figures

OBRAG admin — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 13:07:26 +0000

Figures released show growing numbers using the Oxford-Bicester line, highlighting the need to continue the extra train services introduced recently. Dr Ian East, chairman of the Oxford-Bicester Rail Action Group quoted here.

Meeting with Chiltern Railways

OBRAG admin — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:47:18 +0000

Updated, as date of meeting has changed:

The OBRAG committee will be meeting with Chiltern Railways on 19 April 2010. The purpose is to talk about concerns that we have, as a group, about the proposed service level after Chiltern take over from FGW on the Bicester Link line.

Currently on the agenda are: loss of enhanced service, fares, bikes, station facilities, car parking. If you have any specific queries or additional areas for discussion, please contact us or comment here.

Passengers seek pledge on Bicester rail link services

OBRAG admin — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 18:29:54 +0000

Today’s Oxford Times and this week’s Bicester Advertiser both have articles about the proposed upgrade to the Oxford-Bicester service. The Oxford Times has comments from OBRAG chairman Ian East, in particular about services stopping at Islip – click here to read the article.

The article in the Bicester Advertiser urges users to have their say on the type of replacement services available while the line in closed. The text of this article can be found here:
Bicester Advertiser 2010-02-11

The Bicester Advertiser also has the following advance warning:
“Rail passengers are being warned that services from Oxford will be affected by engineering work over the weekend of February 20-21. The line north of Oxford will be closed both days, with buses replacing FGW trains to Islip and Bicester Town”

This is also on the FGW website (although this mentions engineering on Saturday only).

Article from Rail Magazine 27 Jan 2010

OBRAG admin — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:07:18 +0000

Click the following link to read this article about Chiltern’s plans for the new Oxford-London route from Rail Magazine:
Rail Magazine 27 Jan 2010

Line closure – replacement services

OBRAG admin — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 09:24:46 +0000

At the AGM, Chiltern Railways confirmed that the Bicester-Oxford line will need to be closed for a period of 9-12 months, beginning mid 2011, in order for the track improvements for Evergreen 3 to be carried out. This will obviously be a great inconvenience to users of the service. Unfortunately this work is necessary due to the position of the existing line and the poor condition of the foundations beneath it.

In the meantime a replacement service will operate. There was some discussion at the AGM about the options for replacement services and Chiltern seem open to discussion about this. Please vote in the following poll to express your preference(s) or add a comment if you have a suggestion that is not listed:

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.