The future Oxford Railway Station?

[Banger Blue]

http://consultation.oxford.gov.uk/consult.ti/oxfordstationcomp/consultationHome

 

From the Oxford City Council website:

 

Six internationally-renowned architects have developed design concepts for a future world-class rail and transport interchange at Oxford and we need you to vote for your favourite.

The competition is the start of a design process with the aim of creating architectural ideas for an ambitious landmark building. The competition follows on from the Oxford Station Masterplan which originally outlined the layout, functions and scale required for a future gateway station at Oxford.

The six competition designs are ideas to help inspire how a future rail and transport interchange could look. This is a very early stage of the design process and these ideas may not be designs that are built but the aim is to visualise what could be possible.

[D826]

I think the City Council should be applauded for this - and there is some inspiring architecture in there. Let's see if the 21st century Oxford City station can be rather more inspiring than its predecessor.

 

A further chance for people to engage with the much and unfairly maligned planning system. Good for Oxford City Council.

 

Matt Wood

[HillsideDepot]

Interesting idea, but I wonder about the architect's abilities - most seem to have designed the bus station bays the wrong way round! OK, probably easy enough to reverse the flow in the designs, but if something that basic is wrong I wonder about other aspects which are outside my area of knowledge.

[PatB]

Interesting idea, but I wonder about the architect's abilities - most seem to have designed the bus station bays the wrong way round! OK, probably easy enough to reverse the flow in the designs, but if something that basic is wrong I wonder about other aspects which are outside my area of knowledge.

 

Copying and pasting from previous overseas projects presumably.

[uax6]

Its interesting that there appears to be a theme between most of the designs of a towering slab sided flat roof shoe-box style building which seem to take Euston as a base. Only one has moved away from this with a building with a three barrelled roof. Mind you its not quite as striking as the final design, which I personally think is the best of the bunch visually (I've only had a quick look).

 

Andy G

[Andy Kirkham]

If this goes ahead, Oxford will have had four different station buildings within my lifetime, which I imagine would be some kind of record.

[Reorte]

Nothing in that lot that I'd like to see from a quick glance, the last is probably the least bad. Of the others several boxes with a few bits of architecture cut out and one shopping centre. I don't see anything in any of them that I'd expect would stand the test of time once the novelty value has worn off.

[unravelled]

I looked at a couple of the plans to see if there was any clue about the proposed trackplan. Both proposals I saw showed 5 through platform faces, with no bays. Other than the current stalled plans to reinstate one of the old bay platforms, I've only seen a couple of proposals. One to convert the current down platform into an island, (which matches these plans in part), and another to build additional bay platforms south of Botley road. I assume the entrants to this process were given an official trackplan to design around, so any ideas as to where it can be found?

If this is going to go ahead, it makes me wonder if it's worth  temporarily rebuilding the bays for the Chilterm services, if it  is to be torn up again. It would be nice to think  that the bays could be designed for conversion  to throughs in the future  It does however make sense of  the decision to delay electrification through Oxford. There's no point in electrifying everything if its all going to change.

 

Dave

[The Stationmaster]

If this goes ahead, Oxford will have had four different station buildings within my lifetime, which I imagine would be some kind of record.

Plus one abortive one which didn't get off the ground in the mid 1960s (to rebuild with an island platform similar to the layout at Port Talbot - scuppered by the two bridges at either end which would have had to be seriously altered greatly increasing costs so the cheapo 'temporary' buildings were done instead).

[lmsforever]

I saw the pictures on BBC Oxford last night one looked more like a prison but one was very modern with swooping curves light and airy and would be an asset to the city but given the city councils track record I doubt it will be picked .Oxford needs a spectacular station as it is a great city to visit and work around plus the tourists arriving will be wowed and want to enjoy the place ,so come city council be not afraid!

[John M Upton]

Having recently watched the Inspector Morse box set in chronological order it is amazing how many times the station building (and for that matter the rolling stock being used) has changed in what was a fairly short space of time.

 

Presumably any new plans will require the retention of the BR blue CCT and GUV vans that have been there so long they must be rusted to the spot by now....

Edited December 11, 2015 by John M Upton

[Joseph_Pestell]

I think the whole concept is wrong and so would vote "none of the above".

 

It is a very difficult site: ground conditions, restricted space, etc. but I still think they should be able to do better. Certainly something more "lightweight".

 

Too much parking in some schemes. No sense in encouraging rail passengers to add to the congestion on the Botley Rd. Better to have GWR London-Oxford trains run on to the new Parkway station and terminate there.

[unravelled]

Remembering this thread, I'm reposting something I put in the GWML electrification thread, in case people aren't reading both

 

Having looked for Oxford updates, it seems some progress has been made.

http://www.njcommerc...to-consultation

 

Platforms extended across the Botley Road on a wider and longer bridge, with two new platform faces. The new up platform line seems to be created from the older existing bay line, although there is a suggestion elsewhere that this might not be done initially. It isn't shown in the Oxford Phase 1 diagram.

http://16cbgt3sbwr82...ord-Phase-1.pdf

 

I would hope that footings (at least) for masts would be put in during construction when/if anything happens. There is reference to OLE relating to the sidings north of the station. Perhaps this is just to keep the bimodes powered up without running the engines...

 

Thanks

 

Dave

[unravelled]

I think there may be another Oxford station thread, but I haven't found it, so I am posting here.

I was back in Oxford this weekend and made a quick visit to the station to see the works. For now the footbridge makes a good vantage point, and the only two high viz'd people I could see were also there looking at the site. There is one deep excavation of the westbound  lane, which seems reasonably dry considering its depth and the rain we've had. I got the impression that they hoped all the surprises had been found, and it will just be a matter of getting on with it when revised plans are agreed.

[jamie92208]

Good to see some work being done. Thanks for the photos Dave. 

 

Jamie

[unravelled]

I was back in Oxford recently, and took these photos on the 6th of April.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I guess they are reinstating the road at the existing level to get traffic moving again, and will dig out to the fimal depth after the new bridge is installed. It looks as if most of the services which were outside the trench at my last visit have now been reburied. As well as the services in individual small (100/150mm) ducts, it looks as if corrugated ducts are being installed for the shallow run services  which can be seen in the last photos. Or perhaps the smaller ducts have been run in further corrugated ducts below those vsible. Hopefully there is space in them  to future proof the setup too.

I do wonder whether it would have been easier to replace the bridge first, and relocate services in the extra space alongside the existing carriageway, which might have allowed light controlled traffic on one lane for most of the work.

 

Dave