The full address is Rainbow Room, Bicester Methodist Church, Sheep Street (entry is via the rear door to the building, which is on Victoria Road, between Linden Road and Bardwell Terrace), OX26 6JQ and directions can be found by clicking here.

The agenda is as follows:

Chairman’s Report
A summary of news and upcoming issues affecting the Oxford-Islip-Bicester service arising from Evergreen 3 and EWR.

Election of Committee
A chance to volunteer, if you think you’d like to contribute to the running or development of OBRAG.

Update by Chiltern Railways
Richard Harper, Network Development Manager at Chiltern Railways, will present an update and will do his best to answer your questions and concerns.

Discussion
A chance for you to air your views or put forward ideas regarding changes you would like to see.

Summary of Inspector’s recommendations
5. The Inspector recommended that the Order should not be made and the planning direction should not be given. This was because the likely lack of a licence under the Conservation of Species and Habitats Regulations 2010 (“the Habitats Regulations”) in respect of works which would affect the habitat of bats was an impediment to implementation of the scheme. The Inspector considered that it would be contrary to Government guidance to confer the compulsory purchase powers required for the scheme while such an impediment was likely.

Summary of Secretary of State’s views
6. For the reasons explained in this letter, the Secretary of State considers that she is not yet in a position to decide whether to accept the Inspector’s recommendations.

However, if Chiltern were able to overcome the impediment to implementation of the scheme identified by the Inspector, she would be minded to make the Order and give the planning direction. This letter invites Chiltern to inform the Secretary of State of progress since the close of the inquiry in agreeing with Natural England mitigation measures for species protected under the Habitats Regulations.

The consequence of this could be a delay before the final decision while Chiltern look for alternatives.

If anyone has more information on this, please do comment below.

Week 26 SO BIT-OXF branch TT
Week 26 SuO BIT-OXF branch TT
Week 27 SO BIT-OXF branch TT
Week 27 SuO BIT-OXF branch TT

Please comment here if you have any questions for Chiltern about timetabling.

Chairman’s Report
A summary of news and upcoming issues affecting the Oxford-Islip-Bicester service arising from both FGW and Chiltern Railways.

Election of Committee
A chance to volunteer, if you think you’d like to contribute to the running or development of OBRAG.

Update by Chiltern Railways on May Handover
Bevis Thomas, Head of Train Planning at Chiltern, will present an update of what we may expect come May, and will do his best to answer your questions and concerns.

Discussion
A chance for you to air views or put forward ideas regarding changes you would like to see, which we can put to either operator.

OBRAG AGM 2011 poster