Should a Hanborough to Witney railway line be built?

[SouthEastBuses]

Witney, population of 27,522, is one of England's largest towns without a railway station. The closest railway station is Long Hanborough, about roughly 7-8 km north and requires about a 15 minute journey on bus number 233.

Would a railway line (starting at Long Hanborough as a branch of the Cotswold Line) to Witney therefore be viable in terms of cost? Should it happen, should it also include electrification, and therefore, should Witney used as the terminus of a GWR 387 service from London?

How much are the costs of this branch line with 25 kV AC OHLE electrification, and without electrification, just for comparison purposes?

Finally, are there any official proposals to reopen a railway line to Witney?

 

[The Planner]

Witney, population of 27,522, is one of England's largest towns without a railway station. The closest railway station is Long Hanborough, about roughly 7-8 km north and requires about a 15 minute journey on bus number 233.

Would a railway line (starting at Long Hanborough as a branch of the Cotswold Line) to Witney therefore be viable in terms of cost? Should it happen, should it also include electrification, and therefore, should Witney used as the terminus of a GWR 387 service from London?

How much are the costs of this branch line with 25 kV AC OHLE electrification, and without electrification, just for comparison purposes?

Finally, are there any official proposals to reopen a railway line to Witney?

You couldn't reopen the old line, which branched off at Yarnton, too much of its built on or has obstacles. Where would you put the station if you brought a line in to the North of North Leigh as you couldn't go south of Hanborough due to Eynsham Hall? All the new housing development is on the West side of the town.
I suspect the best that will happen is more bus lane along the A40.

 

[SouthEastBuses]

You couldn't reopen the old line, which branched off at Yarnton, too much of its built on or has obstacles. Where would you put the station if you brought a line in to the North of North Leigh as you couldn't go south of Hanborough due to Eynsham Hall? All the new housing development is on the West side of the town.
I suspect the best that will happen is more bus lane along the A40.

I'd say the best place to put the train station would be around the Cogges area, to the east of the town, with the new station being built as a park & ride facility to accommodate users from nearby village such as Eynsham.

That said, the line could then follow roughly the A6095 road to then branch off just south of Combe station

 

[W-on-Sea]

A light railway to Oxford, following the old railway route about as far east as Cassington (or even just Eynsham), before heading SE towards Oxford directly, would be a better option, I'd suggest, to avoid adding yet more trains to the northern approaches to Oxford/Wolvercote junction, and also allow far higher frequency of service, as well as being ultimately cheaper to run. Maybe even a tram-train, although that would force a much needed rethink about how private and public transport interact in Oxford.

Not quite sure where the station would go in Witney, either, given that both previous sites have new uses, and the one that would be easier to restore (the southern one, now a light industrial estate) isn't particularly central or convenient. Not convinced Cogges is really the ideal either, although, yes, a P&R there might actually be an excellent idea.

There have been longstanding local campaigns about improving public transport between Witney and Oxford (very much at the mercy of the A40 in rush hours), but there are lots of fiddly little challenges that mean better bus services have been all that have been implemented.

Am very doubtful it will ever happen....

 

[JamesT]

I'd say the best place to put the train station would be around the Cogges area, to the east of the town, with the new station being built as a park & ride facility to accommodate users from nearby village such as Eynsham.

That said, the line could then follow roughly the A6095 road to then branch off just south of Combe station

https://witneyoxfordtransport.org.uk/ who seem to be campaigning for a railway have a different route in mind. They split off the Cotswold line a little after Yarnton and head back towards the A40. They then run mostly alongside the A40 with an Eynsham station on the North side of the village. Their Witney station would be to the South near the main A40 junction, then they carry on to Carterton.

The County Council will shortly be building a park and ride at Eynsham and upgrading the A40 to cope with the demand for travel into Oxford. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-56333711 and https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/resi...ks/future-transport-projects/a40-improvements
They've probably missed the bus (sorry) on getting any sort of rail scheme bundled in with the road widening, but it does suggest that locating a rail station next to the P&R (ala Oxford Parkway) could capture some traffic.

PS: I assume you mean A_4_095 rather than A_6_095?

 

[The Planner]

I'd say the best place to put the train station would be around the Cogges area, to the east of the town, with the new station being built as a park & ride facility to accommodate users from nearby village such as Eynsham.

That said, the line could then follow roughly the A6095 road to then branch off just south of Combe station

No one is going to drive the opposite direction from Oxford from Eynsham to get a train.

 

[SouthEastBuses]

https://witneyoxfordtransport.org.uk/ who seem to be campaigning for a railway have a different route in mind. They split off the Cotswold line a little after Yarnton and head back towards the A40. They then run mostly alongside the A40 with an Eynsham station on the North side of the village. Their Witney station would be to the South near the main A40 junction, then they carry on to Carterton.

The County Council will shortly be building a park and ride at Eynsham and upgrading the A40 to cope with the demand for travel into Oxford. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-56333711 and https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/resi...ks/future-transport-projects/a40-improvements
They've probably missed the bus (sorry) on getting any sort of rail scheme bundled in with the road widening, but it does suggest that locating a rail station next to the P&R (ala Oxford Parkway) could capture some traffic.

PS: I assume you mean A_4_095 rather than A_6_095?

I mean whatever the road that goes from Witney to Woodstock is numbered

 

[PTR 444]

I mean whatever the road that goes from Witney to Woodstock is numbered

It is the A4095

 

[Bald Rick]

Would a railway line (starting at Long Hanborough as a branch of the Cotswold Line) to Witney therefore be viable in terms of cost?

What do you mean by ‘viable’ in terms of cost? Commercially viable? Or viable in a socio-economic ‘value for money’ sense?

How much are the costs of this branch line with 25 kV AC OHLE electrification, and without electrification, just for comparison purposes?

Start at £40m per mile. Add £3m per mile of single track for electrification.

Finally, are there any official proposals to reopen a railway line to Witney?

No.

 

[Falcon1200]

Even if trains, or tram-trains, eventually run between Witney and Oxford, they would not address the issue that Oxford station is not particularly well located for the city centre, and extremely poorly located for the major traffic generator that is the JR Hospital - The latter not a railway problem of course but thanks to lunatic city planners. Unless perhaps tram-trains could extend along High St and up Headington Road to the JR, something I would love to see but I think highly unlikely !

 

[zwk500]

The other part of this question is whether you'd need to do any additional work on top of the current redevelopment plans to get a platform for the new services at Oxford. A second part of that question would be whether you'd also need to run services beyond Oxford to Didcot, Reading or London to tempt people out of their cars.

 

[SouthEastBuses]

The other part of this question is whether you'd need to do any additional work on top of the current redevelopment plans to get a platform for the new services at Oxford. A second part of that question would be whether you'd also need to run services beyond Oxford to Didcot, Reading or London to tempt people out of their cars.

My idea would be that if, and when the Witney line is rebuilt, a GWR service runs from Witney to London Paddington via Oxford, Didcot and Reading using Class 387s

 

[zwk500]

My idea would be that when the Witney line is rebuilt, a GWR service runs from Witney to London Paddington via Oxford, Didcot and Reading using Class 387s

Is that an extension of an existing service or a brand new one?

 

[SouthEastBuses]

Is that an extension of an existing service or a brand new one?

1tph extension of the current London-Didcot service, additionally calling at Oxford, Hanborough and Witney

With Radley, Culham and Appleford served by another London-Oxford 387 service being the extension of the other tph (assuming that London to Didcot is currently 2tph)

 

[Bald Rick]

My idea would be that when the Witney line is rebuilt

It’s not going to be, so your “when” is rather superfluous!

 

[SouthEastBuses]

It’s not going to be, so your “when” is rather superfluous!

Are you sure about that?

No plans confirmed for now, yes, but lots of proposals exist to reopen.

Oh and let's not forget this:

Bid for new Oxford to Witney railway line study to be submitted

A transport group wants to investigate building a new line between Oxford and Witney.

www.bbc.com

A group campaigning to re-establish an Oxfordshire railway will bid for government funds to carry out a feasibility study.

Witney Oxford Transport will submit a bid to the Restoring Your Railway Fund to explore plans to build a new line between Oxford and Witney.

If successful, a grant will pay experts to determine if a new line is possible.

Passenger services between Witney and Oxford used to operate on the Fairford Branch Line, which closed in 1962.

Witney also had a goods station accessed by freight trains in Station Lane until 1970, which is now the site of the town's Sainsbury's supermarket. The former branch line, created in 1861, no longer exists.

Hence why I thought I would speculate the benefits, costs, analysis of this project by starting this thread! And also what services would have the most patronage

 

[Snapper37]

What we need is a monorail!

https://www.westoxmonorail.com/

Or more likely a train tram, centre of Witney, p&r on the a40 by Eynsham reusing as much of the old track bed as possible, then perhaps onto Abingdon via Oxford?

 

[SouthEastBuses]

What we need is a monorail!

https://www.westoxmonorail.com/

Or more likely a train tram, centre of Witney, p&r on the a40 by Eynsham reusing as much of the old track bed as possible, then perhaps onto Abingdon via Oxford?

Tramtrain could work, and does have the advantage of allowing better and more accessible transport into Oxford City Centre. But I'm not sure whether financially speaking, the costs would be worth it, or whether it should just be a standard railway

 

[Bald Rick]

Are you sure about that?

Yes, certain.

 

[RailWonderer]

Oxford - Eynsham - Witney - Carterton would be a perfect branch, would serve 15k, 25k and 5k population centres.

 

[Mitchell Hurd]

I believe GWR wants to doube the track between Oxford and Hanborough and run services to and from there and Cowley providing a Cross-Oxford service.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[JamesT]

I believe GWR wants to doube the track between Oxford and Hanborough and run services to and from there and Cowley providing a Cross-Oxford service.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I believe the two things are separate. GWR do want to extend services that terminate at Oxford currently to Hanborough. Chiltern/EWR would extend their services that also terminate at Oxford to Cowley.

 

[Mitchell Hurd]

I believe the two things are separate. GWR do want to extend services that terminate at Oxford currently to Hanborough. Chiltern/EWR would extend their services that also terminate at Oxford to Cowley.

That's right, yes. Which Oxford terminators though - IET's or Turbos?

 

[JamesT]

That's right, yes. Which Oxford terminators though - IET's or Turbos?

The usual suggestion is it would be tied up with Oxford electrification. The 387 services that currently terminate at Didcot would return to Oxford, replacing the Turbos. If the wires then extend to Hanborough you can send the 387s to turn there instead of clogging up the Oxford sidings between runs.

 

[BrianW]

Witney, population of 27,522, is one of England's largest towns without a railway station. The closest railway station is Long Hanborough, about roughly 7-8 km north and requires about a 15 minute journey on bus number 233.

Would a railway line (starting at Long Hanborough as a branch of the Cotswold Line) to Witney therefore be viable in terms of cost? Should it happen, should it also include electrification, and therefore, should Witney used as the terminus of a GWR 387 service from London?

How much are the costs of this branch line with 25 kV AC OHLE electrification, and without electrification, just for comparison purposes?

Finally, are there any official proposals to reopen a railway line to Witney?

Returning to your Question- Why? Who or what for?
'Heavy rail' is as noted by others 'permanent way' ie long-term, inflexible, expensive
Bus may be less attractive to a rail enthusiast but is cheaper and more flexible- services can be increased/ reduced/ rerouted more readily.

Would this 'connect' with (hourly?) trains to Charlbury, Evesham, Hereford ...; Oxford, Culham, Reading, London ...?

There have been innumerable reports (some based on 'research') into how Oxford might be better served by public transport, including eg
- ideas for a kind of 'suburban network' with trains connecting eg Diamond Light, BMW/Cowley, Princes Risborough, London Oxford Airport, ...
- whether to serve Oxford Station/ Centre (Carfax?)/ JR Hospital/ P&Rs/ ...
-'business needs' (noting Atkins have moived their 'HQ' from Eynsham to City Centre (access to employees/ clients?)
- Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs)- supporting (local /economic) consultants etc
- Global/ university/ innovation 'centres'
- Links to 'golden triangle'/ Cambridge/ EWR corridor

How about electric/ hydrogen buses (renamed to sound 21st century) and more 'individual': pods, as eg MK starships?

Opportunity for something imaginative/ innovative/ fresh/ new/ exciting ...

Seeing the Press Release already/ photo opportunity for a high-viz PM ...

What is Witney, population of 27,522, for- lovely as it is.