East West Rail Operations

[12LDA28C]

The five station proposal involved removing the stopping service entirely. But it was unpopular, so may have been kicked into the long grass for now.

If there is only proposed to be 1tph on the route initially, I'm sure that could fit around the stopping service with a bit of careful planning.

 

[Snow1964]

The newly published (October 2024) Wiltshire area Network Rail study appears to suggest that linking the proposed Bristol -Oxford service to East West might be an option. (It also includes reopening Corsham station on this service).

Also suggests if a loop is installed near Melksham, the aspiration for improved Trans Wilts services to hourly, might allow that service to continue to Oxford, appears to be a stopping service with Frome as terminus (and second platform, or long staggered platform at Frome that allows part to be used as a bay).

Seems to recognise that large amounts of housing growth in north and west Wiltshire need better north-south connectivity which is why the options have presumably been included.

Network Rail has produced its Wiltshire Rail Strategic Study, which sets out plans for the future.

Wiltshire Council has welcomed the study, which points out that better links to the likes of Birmingham and Oxford are needed.

The study says that the current system lacks direct and frequent services, especially on north/south routes.

Other key recommendations are enhancements to local services, especially those via Melksham, new railway stations at Devizes and Corsham, upgrades to infrastructure and new services between Wiltshire and key hubs.

Study finds new Wiltshire railway stations should be built

Network Rail has produced its Wiltshire Rail Strategic Study, which sets out plans for the future. Wiltshire Council has welcomed the study, which points out that better links to the likes of Birmingham and Oxford are needed. The study says that the current system lacks direct and frequent...

www.railadvent.co.uk

 

[fishwomp]

The newly published (October 2024) Wiltshire area Network Rail study appears to suggest that linking the proposed Bristol -Oxford service to East West might be an option. (It also includes reopening Corsham station on this service).

Also suggests if a loop is installed near Melksham, the aspiration for improved Trans Wilts services to hourly, might allow that service to continue to Oxford, appears to be a stopping service with Frome as terminus (and second platform, or long staggered platform at Frome that allows part to be used as a bay).

Seems to recognise that large amounts of housing growth in north and west Wiltshire need better north-south connectivity which is why the options have presumably been included.

Wiltshire's population is 500,000 - and almost half of that lives in Swindon(!). In spite of that, there's a shockingly low 103 passengers ( https://railalefan.co.uk/labs/flowstats/SWI/ ) a day to Oxford. If that's the two biggest towns, you would struggle to be funded to reopen a station to connect that many people, if it weren't already open. Okehampton to Exeter C scores more and took ages to happen..

They could start by setting an appropriate fare for Oxford to Swindon if they want to be useful.

Swindon and Oxford are practically and economically very close - but only via the A420.. this: https://mabcu.uk/traffic?m=13,51.6037319,-1.6824532 (the road equivalent of national rail entries and exits) - shows ~20-25,000 vehicles a day along the A420.

it's a stupidly expensive fare in the peak - £60 return - for a crow-flies distance of 25 miles each way - and a 40m to 50m journey time. In contrast, £21 Oxford to Reading day return in the peak, same distance, and heading in the direction of London in the peak! No way can the Swindon route be getting the ££ that it should if it prices people away like that! Off-peak returns > 1 day are also far too expensive.

Current peak return for Milton Keynes to Swindon is £215 via London, £160 via Coventry. It'll be interesting to see how that changes with EWR.

 

[stevieinselby]

Wiltshire's population is 500,000 - and almost half of that lives in Swindon(!). In spite of that, there's a shockingly low 103 passengers ( https://railalefan.co.uk/labs/flowstats/SWI/ ) a day to Oxford. If that's the two biggest towns, you would struggle to be funded to reopen a station to connect that many people, if it weren't already open. Okehampton to Exeter C scores more and took ages to happen..

They could start by setting an appropriate fare for Oxford to Swindon if they want to be useful.

Swindon and Oxford are practically and economically very close - but only via the A420.. this: https://mabcu.uk/traffic?m=13,51.6037319,-1.6824532 (the road equivalent of national rail entries and exits) - shows ~20-25,000 vehicles a day along the A420.

Oxford is the 8th most popular destination from Swindon, and the only one in the top 20 that doesn't have a direct service.
The S6 bus runs every 20 minutes between Swindon and Oxford (every 30 minutes evenings and Sundays), using generally high quality double-deckers, so there is evidently some reasonable level of demand for travel between the two, even allowing for the fact that a fair number of passengers will be travelling to intermediate destinations.
Swindon to Oxford by train is generally about 40–45 minutes, with two journeys every hour, changing at Didcot. That's not a bad level of service, but it's hard to imagine that it wouldn't be boosted quite a bit if there was a direct train – ideally a new service would be accompanied by new stations at Grove and maybe even Milton Park, so with the reversal at Didcot it might not speed up the service all that much, but the convenient of a direct train would definitely appeal to passengers who are put off by having to change.