Chiltern's trains between Milton Keynes and Oxford will be welcome, but won't deserve 'East West' branding.

[Nicholas43]

Moderator note: Split from

East-West Rail (EWR) countdown to entry into service

mods note - split from this thread I see that on Wednesday and Thursday both trains will be running through the Claydon Loops which they did not do today. Am I right in thinking these loops are for the bin liners when they resume?

www.railforums.co.uk

Why does this thread title buy into the "East West" hype? The jobs of the East West Rail company are to push for the approval of a new railway from Bedford to Cambridge, and the closure of what the company probably regards as the annoying little stations on the Marston Vale line. Meanwhile, the East West Rail company won't be running, or training drivers for, trains on the spruced-up ex-LNWR branch line from Bletchley to Oxford.

 

[The Planner]

Why does this thread title buy into the "East West" hype? The jobs of the East West Rail company are to push for the approval of a new railway from Bedford to Cambridge, and the closure of the annoying little stations on the Marston Vale line. Meanwhile, the East West Rail company won't be running, or training drivers for, trains on the spruced-up ex-LNWR branch line from Bletchley to Oxford.

So are you saying they had nothing to do with Bicester Bletchley? No one cares if it was a LNWR branch line, much like most users don't care who ran a line 80 years ago. To them its a new railway.

 

[Nicholas43]

So are you saying they had nothing to do with Bicester Bletchley?

[edited to remove my mistaken reference to Calvert: thanks 12LDA28C; and to clarify my disquiet for "East West" as a name for the hoped-for route from Cambridge to Oxford via Bletchley]
No: the East West Rail company did a good job of specifying what and when Network Rail would do to put back the tracks on the (never actually closed, just disused?) bit of branch line from Bletchley to Claydon, and build one new station. But the East West Rail company, as far as I know, has no role in training drivers for the intended (and most welcome) little local trains between Oxford and Milton Keynes.
East West is, in my opinion, an imprecise name for the hoped-for route wiggling from Cambridge to Bedford, and then proceeding SW to Oxford. (Compare it with routes that do run east west, such as Ore to Southampton, or Hull to Blackpool.) It's also an undersell, because (for example) Oxford to Liverpool via Milton Keynes will be attractive. It's a pity, I think, that, apparently, no-one is thinking of an interesting branding (such as Hawking line?), comparable to the hugely successful use of Elizabeth Line for what its builders had called Crossrail.

 

[Peter Sarf]

Why does this thread title buy into the "East West" hype? The jobs of the East West Rail company are to push for the approval of a new railway from Bedford to Cambridge, and the closure of the annoying little stations on the Marston Vale line. Meanwhile, the East West Rail company won't be running, or training drivers for, trains on the spruced-up ex-LNWR branch line from Bletchley to Oxford.

I think most of us see EWR as the name of the route that will eventually link Oxford and Cambridge, one day. We do not see it as the name of some company promoting the route.

For me I am interested in who will run the service on the route so far re-opened and also the trains used. It is interesting to know who built the original parts of the route 100 or so years ago of course. Also interesting to know who is doing the actual work of re-opening bits of said route so far. Eventually will be interested in the re-opening or more likely new route Eastwards from Bedford to Cambridge.

I have no idea whether Network Rail have been working on behalf of the state OR some company promoting the route. I fear the route will not get further East than Bedford anytime soon.

 

[swt_passenger]

I think most of us see EWR as the name of the route that will eventually link Oxford and Cambridge, one day. We do not see it as the name of some company promoting the route.

The EWR company never occurred to me in the context of this thread’s title either. It could be, (and obviously has been), about any TOC or FOC carrying out stock testing or route learning on the EWR route section just finished. It’s been pretty clear for almost 2 years Chiltern would be the operator, despite no official announcement.

Personally I think EWR is a far better route name than the rather dubious “varsity line” which appears to have been rarely used.

 

[12LDA28C]

No: the East West Rail company did a good job of specifying what and when Network Rail would do to put back the tracks on the (never actually closed, just disused?) bit of branch line from Bletchley to Calvert, and build one new station. But the East West Rail company, as far as I know, has no role in training drivers for the intended (and most welcome) little local trains between Oxford and Milton Keynes.
And (off topic, but amusing) GWR's pricing managers still get muddled about ex-LNWR metals, and price tickets between Bicester North and Bicester "Village" - via Banbury.

Unless I'm mistaken, nowhere in the thread title does it mention the 'East West Rail Company' and this discussion is about route learning and driver training over the East-West route. Also, you seem to be confusing Calvert with Claydon as the latter is the location of the former LNE junction which is passed through by EWR and Calvert is not currently connected to EWR and nor will it be for at least several years, if at all.

 

[fishwomp]

The EWR company never occurred to me in the context of this thread’s title either. It could be, (and obviously has been), about any TOC or FOC carrying out stock testing or route learning on the EWR route section just finished. It’s been pretty clear for almost 2 years Chiltern would be the operator, despite no official announcement.

Personally I think EWR is a far better route name than the rather dubious “varsity line” which appears to have been rarely used.

Precisely (as others have also said).

There is even a wiki page for East West Rail that was first written - with title East West Rail in August 2007, which is all to do with the consortium that was set up by local authorities to push for the scheme see:

East West Rail - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

East West Rail Company Ltd was set up in 2017 - _after_ Oxford-Bicester was rebuilt and the curve to the Marylebone line built and had opened (Ox-Marylebone - Dec 2016), and Ox Parkway to Marylebone opened in 2015

 

[sqwizz]

It's been a lot more than sprucing up a disused line. New track since it was mostly gone, widened, new road bridges, re-routing roads, footbridges, more like 2 new stations, rebuilt embankments, rebuilding a big chunk of the Bletchley flyover, etc. I'm sure we all knew this and someone is just trolling but still. This pic is when I walked it in 2017.

 

[Nicholas43]

Personally I think EWR is a far better route name than the rather dubious “varsity line” which appears to have been rarely used.

We had a thread which established that no-one could find an example of the naff expression "varsity line" being used, in writing, back in the days when trains were running on both branch lines, Bletchley to Oxford, and Bletchley to Cambridge.

 

[Nicholas43]

[inappropriate post deleted by original poster]

 

[The Planner]

Hmm. This wondrous spruced-up branch line, on which drivers are at last being trained (that being, ahem, the subject of this thread); and which you may be able to use, from December 2025, to travel from the horror of the Bicester ‘Village’ shopping hell to the gloom of the Milton Keynes shopping hell*, and which might, some time after 2030, be connected to a spruced-up branch line from Bletchley to Bedford, on which you probably won't be able to stop at Ridgmont any more, for the genuine delight of afternoon tea. Meanwhile, dreams and arguments about a wholly-new South-North-West corkscrew line between Cambridge and Bedford are, of course, for other threads.
[* and, to be fair, will provide a welcome alternative to Voyagers for south-north journeys such as Oxford to Manchester]

It will be open way before the end of the year, I'm not entirely sure of the point of the rest of your rant?

 

[MatthewHutton]

Why does this thread title buy into the "East West" hype? The jobs of the East West Rail company are to push for the approval of a new railway from Bedford to Cambridge, and the closure of the annoying little stations on the Marston Vale line. Meanwhile, the East West Rail company won't be running, or training drivers for, trains on the spruced-up ex-LNWR branch line from Bletchley to Oxford.

I think especially if Avanti start stopping more trains at Milton Keynes that there will be connecting passengers from Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire.

And that is ignoring more people going to Oxford for the evening or Oxford/Milton Keynes for work as it will be possible.