Chiltern Railways launches Oxford link

[exet1095]

I'm sitting on the 07.24 from Oxford Parkway to Marylebone at the moment. Six Mark Threes, about 80% full. Most trains, so the station staff tell me, run from the Up platform at OXP, but this runs from the down, wrong line (but it is bidirectional) to just before the Aldi Junction in Bicester. Interested to see that the formation seems to be raised between two concrete retaining walls, about 10' above the fields. This is Otmoor, so is very soggy, but it does seem to be a very comprehensive rebuilding of what was previously a very unobtrusive line.

 

Paul

[Arun Sharma]

I travelled from OXP to Haddenham yesterday on the 1417 to Marylebone - non stop through Islip with much evidence of the "Orange Army" present. Also much evidence of requirement for drainage works [especially?] on the nearside [west] between OXP and Bicester Village. 

 

Outside OXP was a single ticket machine which wasn't behaving so went inside to discover no sign of a ticket office. However a very polite young Chiltern CSA pointed out that what I had thought were three 4foot high illuminated wall-mounted advert screens were actually touch screen information and ticket machines! Bemused to hear the pre-station arrival at Bicester Village was in English, Chinese and Arabic so not wholly surprised when 168-322 became half full of Arabs and Chinese folk. 

 

I think Chiltern are onto a winner here. Is this an argument for more 20 year TOC franchises?

[Zomboid]

I don't know about 20 year franchises, but Chiltern has been a story of showing that a little ambition can have great results.

Maybe if it had been run by govia the route would still be single between risborough and aynho, rather than the genuine competition/ diversionary route to the WCML to Birmingham that it actually is.

[david.hill64]

I think Chiltern are onto a winner here. Is this an argument for more 20 year TOC franchises?

 

Perhaps an argument for long franchises, but also shows what can be done when you let (ex-BR) engineers run the company rather than bean counters. Adrian Shooter and Rob Brighouse have done very well for the travelling public.

[Glorious NSE]

Unfortunately I think if some TOC managements had it they would still just be running a smallish fleet of 165/0s as far as Banbury...

[Zomboid]

Unfortunately I think if some TOC managements had it they would still just be running a smallish fleet of 165/0s as far as Banbury...

And you wouldn't want one of those outfits having a 20 year franchise. To me, the point is that the long contracts are good so long as they'll be used to provide a return on investment; i.e. the investment is a requirement of having it for so long.

[lmsforever]

Lucky Oxford according to our local paper the extensions eastward are to be delayed due to NR not being able to control spending our link to MK is delayed to 2020 and the actual East West is 2018  so much for supporting railways.

[Joseph_Pestell]

I travelled from OXP to Haddenham yesterday on the 1417 to Marylebone - non stop through Islip with much evidence of the "Orange Army" present. Also much evidence of requirement for drainage works [especially?] on the nearside [west] between OXP and Bicester Village. 

 

Outside OXP was a single ticket machine which wasn't behaving so went inside to discover no sign of a ticket office. However a very polite young Chiltern CSA pointed out that what I had thought were three 4foot high illuminated wall-mounted advert screens were actually touch screen information and ticket machines! Bemused to hear the pre-station arrival at Bicester Village was in English, Chinese and Arabic so not wholly surprised when 168-322 became half full of Arabs and Chinese folk. 

 

I think Chiltern are onto a winner here. Is this an argument for more 20 year TOC franchises?

 

There was a report a couple of weeks ago on TV about Chinese tourists. Apparently Bicester Outlet Village is their top "must-see" destination.

[Joseph_Pestell]

Lucky Oxford according to our local paper the extensions eastward are to be delayed due to NR not being able to control spending our link to MK is delayed to 2020 and the actual East West is 2018  so much for supporting railways.

 

Do we know who the Govt has in mind as the franchisee for this route? If not committed to giving it to, say, London Midland, why not just let Chiltern have a go at it? They seem to have achieved most of their "wins" outside of the usual constraints of Control Periods.

[Zomboid]

Do we know who the Govt has in mind as the franchisee for this route? If not committed to giving it to, say, London Midland, why not just let Chiltern have a go at it? They seem to have achieved most of their "wins" outside of the usual constraints of Control Periods.

I imagine a lot of the trains will be Chiltern. Part of the plan is Marylebone to MK via Risborough and Aylesbury, which logic dictates would be Chiltern. Oxford to MK and Bedford would fit with that as well, but that depends on the origin of the services. If they're actually Reading/ Southampton to points north of MK then it'll probably be Cross Country running those.

[eastwestdivide]

There was a report a couple of weeks ago on TV about Chinese tourists. Apparently Bicester Outlet Village is their top "must-see" destination.

They promote themselves heavily to "rich foreigners" - I've seen huge glossy catalogues promoting their chain of "outlet villages" across Europe, translated into Russian and Japanese among other languages.

[alibuchan]

I know that last year there was a 132 ft x 8 ft poster advertising Bicester Village above the check in desks in Beijing international airport. I would assume that it is still there now.

 

It has been in the top 3 for a few years. Regularly swapping top spot with Alton Towers and Buckingham palace for top spot.

 

Last year on Boxing Day the 7:15, 7:45, 8:15 and 8.45 departures from London to Bicester North were full and standing with shoppers for village. They were all 5 coach trains.

 

I used to regularly have arms full of discarded designer bags to take to the bins from them getting everything in to suitcases and trying to get them into less bags. The six foot tall pile of shoe boxes was the most annoying as I had to make 3 trips to clear them.

 

Alistair

[roundhouse]

So all the Chinese come over to Bicester to take all the good back to where they are made

[bigP]

--

[ejstubbs]

They promote themselves heavily to "rich foreigners"

 

For good reason.  A relative of mine works for Bicester Outlet Village in a fairly senior position.  He told me the other week that the average UK visitor spends a few hundred pounds, the average Chinese visitor spends a few thousand!

 

They have an interesting business model: rather than fixed rents they take a cut of each retailer's turnover.  It's therefore in their direct interest to encourage high-spending visitors.  They also provide FoC advice and consultancy to the retailers to help them increase their turnover, since again it's in their direct interest to do so.  (On the other hand, they will 'move on' any retailer whose business volumes persistently fail to match Bicester's revenue plans.)

[alibuchan]

Yeah, but it's an outlet village don't forget, so they're getting this seasons bargains

Technically it's last years stuff at bargain prices.

 

Alistair

[Banger Blue]

Technically it's last years stuff at bargain prices.

Alistair

 

'Bargain prices' that are still quite eye-watering! The last time SWMBO and I visited BV (when they still had a few normal non designer shops) she was admiring a pair of shoes in the Jimmy Choo window, quite a hefty discount on them but still the best part of £500

 

BV seems to be the domain of the rich foreigners or the chavvy WAG wannabes who have way more money then sense or taste!

[Bernard Lamb]

 

 

They have an interesting business model: rather than fixed rents they take a cut of each retailer's turnover.  It's therefore in their direct interest to encourage high-spending visitors.  They also provide FoC advice and consultancy to the retailers to help them increase their turnover, since again it's in their direct interest to do so.  (On the other hand, they will 'move on' any retailer whose business volumes persistently fail to match Bicester's revenue plans.)

This seems to be a fairly common business model these days, although details are hard to find. Major airport retail outlets, so I am told use a similar set up. I did see some figure for one example and they were absolutely incredible.

Bernard

[roundhouse]

There was a TV series a few years ago about Bluewater or was it Lakeside and they had a similar business model.

 

We went to Bicester Village some years ago and none of the prices looked attractive to us but maybe we just like cheap clothes

 

Certainly no decent beer T Shirts on sale!!

[alibuchan]

The majority of Bicester residents don't visit it that much either. Quite a lot of people actually hate the place, and the name change of Bicester Village station really didn't go down well. I think there are still petitions to try to get the name changed back.

 

Fair enough it's "discounted" but when the discounted stuff is still more that my disposable income it doesn't seem like that good a deal! Think of all of those trains you could buy for that half price shirt and jeans combo, that is still £450!

 

Alistair

[Fat Controller]

This seems to be a fairly common business model these days, although details are hard to find. Major airport retail outlets, so I am told use a similar set up. I did see some figure for one example and they were absolutely incredible.

Bernard

Pretty well the norm for shopping malls in general, all manner of so-called 'Duty Free' concessions (most of which are run by one or two companies), and I suspect also for the shopping/catering concessions at many refurbished large stations.

[roundhouse]

The majority of Bicester residents don't visit it that much either. Quite a lot of people actually hate the place, and the name change of Bicester Village station really didn't go down well. I think there are still petitions to try to get the name changed back.

 

Fair enough it's "discounted" but when the discounted stuff is still more that my disposable income it doesn't seem like that good a deal! Think of all of those trains you could buy for that half price shirt and jeans combo, that is still £450!

 

Alistair

Thats more than an N scale 11 car Pendolino with sound!

[Reorte]

This seems to be a fairly common business model these days, although details are hard to find. Major airport retail outlets, so I am told use a similar set up. I did see some figure for one example and they were absolutely incredible.

It has its uses I suppose. Several years ago I was having to fly out of Liverpool regularly and the queues at security were getting longer and longer (probably to persuade people to pay for the shorter queue). Suddenly it all improved, it's possible that the shops and bars on the other side were losing too much due to people not having any time to do anything other than run for the gate. I doubt that they'd listen to passengers grumbling about it but when the money started going...

[pete_mcfarlane]

Lucky Oxford according to our local paper the extensions eastward are to be delayed due to NR not being able to control spending our link to MK is delayed to 2020 and the actual East West is 2018  so much for supporting railways.

 

Presumably the local paper is catching up with the news from a few months back about Network Rail delaying major projects because they'd tried to do too much at once?

[Gordon Connell]

Tracklaying to Oxford now completed - http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/single-view/view/tracklaying-completed-for-chiltern-to-oxford.html