East West rail, Bletchley to oxford line

[porkie]

Well its not everyday a class37 growls behind the back of my house.

Makes a nice change to the gm stuff

[Trog]

I doubt the two new platforms at Bletchley will be the old bays that were once on the down side of the fast lines.

 

 

 

I think they were originally through platforms joining the fasts at the north end of the station, rather than bays.

Edited February 22, 2016 by Trog

[Clive Mortimore]

If someone wants it to carry 'major traffic flows' between Bletchley and Bedford that bit is going to cost a large amount of money in relation to the distance.  There were enough problems with it at the last resignalling - when the line speed had to be lowered from the original spec to avoid the scheme being priced out of existence due to the complexities caused by the number and frequency of level crossings so I expect any major 'upgrading' of speeds and/or line capacity will inevitably means bridges to replace the level crossings plus full renewal of the not very old signalling  (mind you it was a nice paying little job for those of us doing Railtrack's work for them ).

Ah! the crossings with the signs that use to say "Passaggio a livello automatico."

[exet1095]

At Oxford station just now I noticed that the bay platform, number three, has been cut back by around 100'. There is a new panel of wooden sleepered flatbottom track with Pandrol clips, on which a shiny new red bufferstop is mounted. I am assuming that this will allow continued use of the bay whilst the new platform is built alongside, and this one is extended over the short-stay car park.

 

Meanwhile, the points that connect the two parcels roads have been taken out but the GUV and CCT are still there.

[Banger Blue]

At Oxford station just now I noticed that the bay platform, number three, has been cut back by around 100'. There is a new panel of wooden sleepered flatbottom track with Pandrol clips, on which a shiny new red bufferstop is mounted. I am assuming that this will allow continued use of the bay whilst the new platform is built alongside, and this one is extended over the short-stay car park.

Meanwhile, the points that connect the two parcels roads have been taken out but the GUV and CCT are still there.

Funny you should mention that, I took some photos of that whilst I was there yesterday:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[lmsforever]

Just think that because of a stroppy councillor and stirred up residents this could have been up and running now .

[KCL]

Item on BBC east - west edition tonight (18.30)  that Network Rail today has selected the Bedford - Sandy - Cambridge option as their preferred route with details to be published in May 2016. a longer item will be on their bulletin at approx. 22.30 tonight (Tuesday)

 

There is also an item on the Rail Magazine website http://www.railmagazine.com/news/network/2016/03/29/bedford-sandy-backed-for-east-west-rail-central-section which says much the same.

[chris p bacon]

Be interesting to see the further details in May and then what the actual route will be.

 

We have the situation in Sandy that the route on the ground to the North of the town which seems the most logical, is being put forward for 4-5000 houses with no planned infrastructure changes, in effect meaning another 6-8000 cars a day on the A1 as there is no access without doing so.

[Nearholmer]

A bit of a detour en-route to Oxford, popping in at a few bridges and level-crossings, and taking a look at the rather good, new station at Bicester Village.

 

Snaps show things seen here before, I think,mbut might be interesting.

 

1) Bridge and iron-trunk near Mursley, at what I guess is the start of Swanbourne Sidings. I was surprised to see the gradients here, which somehow I hadn't registered before.

 

2) Swanbourne Grand Terminus.

 

3) Verney Junction (again!), because one has to.

 

Sorry, but I forgot to take a snap of the new station!

 

Pictures of freight trains on the Calvert section will go onto the Class 66 thread.

 

Kevin

[class"66"]

Interesting pictures above..

 

 

cheers neil.

[jamie92208]

I see from the BBC that Phillip Hammond (One of many ex transport Ministers) has announced £110m for East West Rail, I've not seen any detail yet and suspect some of this may have been announced before but it may be good news.

 

Jamie

[lmsforever]

Bucks CC made an announcement last week that this amount of money could get the Bicester MK and Aylesbury Calvert started so at last the diggers could be moving in .

[eastwestdivide]

The full  extract (well, as full as it gets) from the Autumn Statement:

 

NIC study on Cambridge-Milton Keynes-Oxford corridor – The government welcomes the NIC’s interim report into the Cambridge-Milton Keynes-Oxford growth corridor, accepts the recommendation for an Oxford-Cambridge expressway,¹⁴ and will provide £27 million in development funding. The government will also bring forward £100 million to accelerate construction of the East-West Rail line western section and allocate £10 million in development funding for the central rail section

 

from https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/autumn-statement-2016-documents/autumn-statement-2016

 

NIC is the National Infrastructure Commission. The expressway is a road. The note 14 refers you to the NIC report at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-national-infrastructure-commissions-interim-report-into-the-cambridge-milton-keynes-oxford-corridor

 

The recommendations there say

 

Rail: Government should commit to delivering the Western Section of the East West Rail project before the end of 2024, bringing forward £100m of funding to avoid delay, and commit up to £10m in development funding to continue work on the Central Section.
Road: Government should commit £27m to the end of 2018/19 to fund the next phase of work on the Oxford-Cambridge Expressway study.

 

and

 

The first section of East West Rail between central Oxford and Bicester is due to fully open in December this year. The government has committed to complete the second section of the line between Oxford and Bedford via Bletchley by 2024 – but there is a risk of the project being further delayed, to avoid this, it is important that elements of the work are accelerated so that its construction can dovetail with that of HS2.
Recommendation 4: The government should commit to delivering the Western Section of the East West Rail project before 2024 (the end of the rail industry’s Control Period 6).

 

and more, but I'm going to bed now

Edited November 23, 2016 by eastwestdivide

[locoholic]

It's a shame that whilst the construction of HS2 and the East West Rail Link should dovetail, the train services won't connect at all.

[porkie]

Work has started clearing the old section around newton Longville.

Picture in our local paper from a drone

 

http://www.miltonkeynes.co.uk/news/milton-keynes-could-be-the-next-silicon-valley-say-government-1-7683261

[chris p bacon]

Work has started clearing the old section around newton Longville.

Picture in our local paper from a drone

 

http://www.miltonkeynes.co.uk/news/milton-keynes-could-be-the-next-silicon-valley-say-government-1-7683261

I know someone who said he was "going to work in Silicon valley" turns out he got his wife implants...

[Mandrover]

Here are some of my pics I took around Verney junction just after the clearing had been done. I live just outside Buckingham so I find all this very interesting. We did look at buying the old station masters house at Marsh Gibbon but decided against for a number of reasons.  I will go and take some pictures around  Steeple Claydon at some point.

[lmsforever]

​The station site at  Winslow has been purchased by the council and the trackbed has been cleared so if NR can be persuaded the contractors who I thought were all on board and ready to start can actualy str work.I don't think an expressway will actually be needed in in total,MK to the M4 M40 yes but northwards to Cambridge no perhaps some tweeks could help .MK to Black Cat on the A1 is all duall carriageway and beyond the road is adequate for what actually wants to use it.a new railway from Bedford is going to be very difficult  and will the passengers actually want to travel on this link when a bus would cover it.MK is the main town on the route and will be the destination for most leisure and work passengers ,also the link from Marylebone to MK will be a well used journey and should have been running along time ago.

[D826]

I agree trains should have been running from Aylesbury to Milton Keynes long before now. It's going to throw up a lot of issues regarding retail vitality and regeneration oportunities in Aylesbury. MK has significant regional draw in terms of its retail offer.

 

Aylesbury's declined as a retail location in my lifetime and it's never going to compete with MK. At least people will be able to travel there by more sustainable means.

 

Best regards

 

Matt

[chris p bacon]

.MK to Black Cat on the A1 is all duall carriageway and beyond the road is adequate for what actually wants to use it.a new railway from Bedford is going to be very difficult  and will the passengers actually want to travel on this link when a bus would cover it.MK is the main town on the route and will be the destination for most leisure and work passengers ,also the link from Marylebone to MK will be a well used journey and should have been running along time ago.

Travelling back today from Norfolk and the queue on the single lane section leading to Caxton Gibbett was 1 mile plus and we'd missed most of the peak traffic.

 

There is already a bus service from Cambridge to Bedford, MK and Oxford, it's the X5 with 31 stops,  Cambridge to Bedford is 1H20M  Bedford to MK station is 55M and MK to Oxford is 1H 20M it's approx hourly.

On this section (East) I'd actually say that Cambridge is the destination rather than MK

[lmsforever]

On Thursday Aylesbury was totally gridlocked by two road works for the best part of three hours this shows how bad traffic numbes are in just one town and in many other towns in this area its the same.This rail line must be started as soon as possible its a necessary link in the growth of Bucks without jamming the roads.

[Davexoc]

On Thursday Aylesbury was totally gridlocked by two road works for the best part of three hours this shows how bad traffic numbes are in just one town and in many other towns in this area its the same.This rail line must be started as soon as possible its a necessary link in the growth of Bucks without jamming the roads.

The problem there is that the council have never done anything to bypass the place. They just build more and more houses, and add more and more traffic lights. The best thing they could do, would be to add a bypass alongside HS2 when that trundles through.

I bypass the place twice a day five days a week, using the surrounding country lanes along with hundreds of others.

 

Dave

[lmsforever]

Agree the bypass is urgently needed but land it could be built on is being covered by houses ,link roads are the current buzzword right through new developments so congestion waiting to happen.Alongside HS2 would be good but don't hold your breath our councils are unable to even decide how to resurface our roads.Atleast the station is finally having some work done on the footbridge its only twenty years since last repaint !   When we get services to MK it will be a great help giving us access to the wcml and even the mml, would be good if a cross country service was routed our way from the south and heading north this would take a lot of cars off our roads.

[lmsforever]

NR are not using "silent track" on the approach to Oxford and according to Radio Oxford the  resi dents are trying to get the council to stop the trains running next week .The council have said that they don't want to stop trains but the locals are being egged on by a Lib Dem councillor wasting money on posters and just being downright awkward for no reason ,cars on the roads are noisier .These residents have caused so much more money to be spent they should be ashamed of themselves for causing so many extra unnesecary problems.

[The Stationmaster]

NR are not using "silent track" on the approach to Oxford and according to Radio Oxford the  resi dents are trying to get the council to stop the trains running next week .The council have said that they don't want to stop trains but the locals are being egged on by a Lib Dem councillor wasting money on posters and just being downright awkward for no reason ,cars on the roads are noisier .These residents have caused so much more money to be spent they should be ashamed of themselves for causing so many extra unnesecary problems.

 

WTH is 'silent track'?  Plastic rails or maybe MDF?

 

All that is happening is that some more trains are going to run along a railway which has never been closed - buy a house near an open railway line and you will one day hear and see trains going past, simples.