Archive for the ‘Timetable’ Category

Meeting with Chiltern Railways

Friday, March 5th, 2010

The OBRAG committee will be meeting with Chiltern Railways on 9 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

Saturday, February 13th, 2010

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).

Line closure – replacement services

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

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:

The Evergreen 3 upgrades will mean no rail services on the Bicester Link line for 9-12 months. Which replacement services would you find useful? (Tick one or more choices)

View Results

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Have your say on timetable changes

Thursday, January 7th, 2010

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.

December 2009 timetable changes

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

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.

Proposed 2013 timetable

Monday, November 9th, 2009

Chiltern Railways new track access contract – closing date for responses 30 November 2009. Links here contain proposed 2013 timetable.