The OBRAG Website » First Great Western

New parking at Bicester Village

OBRAG admin — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 08:27:07 +0000

Bicester Villlage have now completed their new car park next to Bicester Town station. This area will be available from Monday 26 July for rail users travelling on the Bicester Link line. More details can be found in this press release from FGW.

OBRAG members may also be interested to know that our chairman, Ian East, has recently published a book called The Cost of the Car: Human, Environmental and Economic. It is available in hardback and paperback from Amazon.co.uk.

The Cost of the Car by Ian East

Outcome from recent vandalism at Islip

OBRAG admin — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 10:51:40 +0000

Regular rail users at Islip will be aware that the shelter was recently vandalised. We have the following report from Geoff Capes, FGW Station Manager at Oxford, on the outcome of the police investigation.

“Our neighbour at Islip heard the vandalism and called the police, and also took some camcorder images. The miscreants had left by the time the police arrived.

Apparently, some of the miscreants heard about the images and decided to hand themselves in, before the police came
calling. I am told that six teenagers were involved, some of whom have been interviewed by BTP and the rest to follow. I understand that, as first time offenders, they will be dealt with under police caution.

Repairs have been authorised today, at a cost of £1,500. We shall be looking at ways of recouping our costs.”

This is an good example of British Transport Police working with the local community and FGW to get a great result with tackling anti-social behaviour on the rail network.

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.

Customer Information Systems

OBRAG admin — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 13:46:38 +0000

FGW are planning to replace the existing help points and Customer Information System (CIS) at Islip and Bicester with a new system. Details are in the following communication from FGW:

“At Islip and Bicester we are removing the current Help Points and CIS and replacing them with a WebCIS unit.
These act as Help Points and will have two buttons – one to contact National Rail and the other for Emergencies.
Additionally the Help Point has a screen that reflects the current train service from its location – as the information on the screen will be fed directly from our new CIS server it will reflect the very latest available information.
That is to say should we replace a train service between Oxford and Bicester and return by bus this will show on the Help Point screen.
Furthermore the new style help points will have the ability to rung up from either a staffed station or the control centre and a broadcast live annoucement made to customers.

The date of install at Islip and Bicester has not been finalised yet but hopefully these Help Points will appear shortly after April.”

FGW Customer Panel

OBRAG admin — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 12:37:12 +0000

FGW have revised their Customer Panel representation and are rolling Islip and Bicester in with 8 other stations, including Oxford. Therefore as from April our representative, Ian East, will cease to be on the Customer Panel.

If anyone is interested in becoming part of the new panel, please contact Ian or leave a message here and we’ll pass on your details. There are 3 evening meetings per year and four first class return rail tickets in return for your input.

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).

Have your say on timetable changes

OBRAG admin — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:22:54 +0000

Our chairman (Ian East), who is also on the FGW customer panel, is meeting with FGW next Thursday (14 Jan 2010) and has the chance to talk about the new Bicester Link timetable and put forward possible changes. It would be great to get your input on this, so please vote on the top issues using our poll on the right hand side of the main homepage. Alternatively it would be great to hear your general comments on these or other issues – to do this use the “Leave a reply” section at the foot of this post.

Also, for reference, please click here for a version of the Dec 2009 Bicester-Oxford timetable in Microsoft Word format.

Off-peak fares and parking

OBRAG admin — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:37:42 +0000

Just a reminder that off-peak rail fares are only £2 return from Bicester-Oxford (£1.80 Islip-Oxford). Compared to the bus (X5 is £4.50 Bicester-Oxford) or Park & Ride (at least £2.20 plus petrol costs and the chance of traffic jams on the A34), this represents excellent value for journeys into the centre of Oxford.

Parking is free all day to rail users in the Islip and Bicester Station Road car parks and also Bicester Village (Mon-Fri only bays marked for rail users).

December 2009 timetable changes

OBRAG admin — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:36:03 +0000

The new First Great Western timetable started on 13 Dec 2009. If you have any comments to make about how it has affected your journey, including connections at Oxford, please post them here. We would also be interested to hear about any changes you would like FGW to consider for the next timetable for us to raise at the next Customer Panel meeting on 12 Jan 2010.

Following this morning’s leaflet drop advertising this website, we now have over 100 subscribers, so it would be great to get your feedback!

Update: For a summary of the timetable changes, click here.