East West rail, Bletchley to oxford line

[lmsforever]

We don't mind infrastructure built near us when we can use it but HS2 is a no go for us ,you should see the house building going on round here our town will soon be at gridlock and every village in the area is experiencing building so we are not nimbys.

[chris p bacon]

We don't mind infrastructure built near us when we can use it but HS2 is a no go for us ,you should see the house building going on round here our town will soon be at gridlock and every village in the area is experiencing building so we are not nimbys.

I'm afraid that by definition you are.

 

HS2 is not about giving those around it a direct benefit but a greater benefit for the whole country.

 

Think about it this way, Do you or those around you ever use Heathrow/Gatwick/Luton/Stansted airport ? They directly affect those that live near them but their use is by a majority that live elsewhere, should they be restricted to those that live directly adjascent to them ?

 

Back on topic.

[lmsforever]

What people around here would like is a parkway station on HS2 that's what I meant by no go for us ,once its built it will blend in not be noticed unlike all the houses! More houses more cars and more congestion as they wont build us a bypass I would not be happy if I lived next door to Heathrow and they built a third runway.

[Bernard Lamb]

This is rapidly going to get into politics.

lms forever, who I do not know, but must live near to me going by various past comments has raised a very relevant point.

As a keen cyclist I now and the group I ride with all agree, find myself restricted to riding in an arc from High Wycombe to Luton.

Now this area is rapidly being cut up with more and more housing developments.

Winslow - big protests.

Today going through Aston Clinton - many banners against yet more houses.

All these developments and yet no improvement to the local infra structure.

Might the NIMBYS just have a point that enough is enough?

I have nothing against development per se but do feel that I should be compensated for any action that adversely affects my quality of life.

Bernard

[Edwin_m]

What people around here would like is a parkway station on HS2 that's what I meant by no go for us ,once its built it will blend in not be noticed unlike all the houses! More houses more cars and more congestion as they wont build us a bypass I would not be happy if I lived next door to Heathrow and they built a third runway.

I think you're saying you wouldn't want a HS2 Parkway because of the development it would bring.  I'd say there is no prospect of that happening because unless most of the trains stop, each train calling at a Parkway will use up two paths on HS2 and therefore remove a whole train worth of longer-distance passengers who would get much more benefit than a few people boarding/alighting in the Chilterns. 

[Enterprisingwestern]

If you have a parkway station then people will want to use it and come and live near it and you'll have to build more houses which would give even more motoring congestion and use up even more green belt land and push local house prices up and drive young people out of the area, etc, etc, etc.

Repeat ad nauseum.

 

Mike.

(Who will be living in direct line of sight of HS2 about a quarter of a mile away.)

 

Rant over.

[lmsforever]

I to will be able to look at HS2 its only quarter of a mile away my opinion on this line is changing due to the overcrowding I see every time I travel, the change to regional services will help us especiay with the Oxford Bletchley line  providing more connections .The real problem in our locale is the growth of housing developments and the lack of road infrastructure improvements as Bernard Lamb says in his post.we feel that no one listens any more.

[Reorte]

More housing going up, more infrastructure going up to deal with it, I know it all makes practical sense but I find it incredibly depressing (and I'm not even talking about things happening near me here). It makes me weep, seeing what's happening to the country. Easier to live in perhaps but less worth living in. I don't know what the answer is but people pretending there isn't a problem and encouraging more of it leave me feeling physically ill.

 

edit: apologies for the moan

Edited October 10, 2014 by Reorte

[Pacific231G]

More housing going up, more infrastructure going up to deal with it, I know it all makes practical sense but I find it incredibly depressing (and I'm not even talking about things happening near me here). It makes me weep, seeing what's happening to the country. Easier to live in perhaps but less worth living in. I don't know what the answer is but people pretending there isn't a problem and encouraging more of it leave me feeling physically ill.

Spreading the economy out to not all be focussed in the South East would help. In the longer term maybe finding something other than GDP to measure value- most people don't get anything from all that growth anyway.

[mark alden]

I moved to Bicester 3 years ago. Don't suppose anyone had pictures of Hymeks (or 22's) on the line please? Particulary at Bicester London Road?

 

The diagram in 1970-72 was 8A86 06.50 Reading West Junction to Bicester No. 2 / SHUNT / 8A86 08.30 No 2 to London Road / SHUNT / 8A86 09.05 London Rd to Oxford South and after a run to Morris Cowley it came back to shunt at No 2 again 12.15-13.40 returning to Reading. It ran Monday to Friday.

 

What was Bicester No. 2? Was it a signal box?

[D1059]

In the longer term maybe finding something other than GDP to measure value- most people don't get anything from all that growth anyway.

 

Unfortunately, the only 'workable' economic model we have demands ever increasing growth and demand to sustain itself. The only way successive governments have found of achieving that is a continually increasing population level. That causes all the problems we now see with housing and infrastructure.

 

When was the last time the UK saw a sustained decrease in population ? World War 1 and 2....maybe, but not for long. I think you would have to go back to the Black Death before you found an example of that.

[lmsforever]

We used to get Hymeks through Aylesbury in the sixties on newspapers from Paddington used to go on towards Northampton I think via Bletchley will soon to be able to do that journey when we get our new services although they will come to us via High Wycombe.Think that there will be problems were the line crosses ring road around Bicester as with all the house building there a lot of traffic will be on this road as it leads to a big new development on the Banbury Rd many angry motorists I think.I bet in a few years time they will be saying that there is not capacity on this new line with all the services being proposed so wonder if a new line parrelled will be built?

[Reorte]

Unfortunately, the only 'workable' economic model we have demands ever increasing growth and demand to sustain itself. The only way successive governments have found of achieving that is a continually increasing population level. That causes all the problems we now see with housing and infrastructure.

Which is a big sign of a completely broken model. It's also obviously nonsense because all the stuff actually gets done with the resources we've actually, physically got, the economic side is "just" about the planning and organising. That said population growth in England is pretty much the exception to the rest of Europe.

 

Anyway, wish I had something relevent to say about Bletchley to Oxford instead of finding another excuse to indulge in my moans.

 

[Eggesford box]

There was a wartime built box at Bicester at the MOD connections from what I can recall from the OPC book on the line though sadly I lent the book to someone a long time ago and it never came back. It may well have been Bicester No.2 given the LMS way of naming boxes.

 

I believe Bicester Perimeter road crossing is going to be replaced by a road bridge. What the situation is going to be at London road crossing I do not know given it is a built up area without much room to build approaches for a bridge. Having been sworn at the other day by a somewhat deranged female cyclist when the barriers at London road where playing up I do not think you have to wait for 'East-West' to start up to encounter angry motorists!

 

I

[big jim]

I believe Bicester Perimeter road crossing is going to be replaced by a road bridge. What the situation is going to be at London road crossing I do not know given it is a built up area without much room to build approaches for a bridge. Having been sworn at the other day by a somewhat deranged female cyclist when the barriers at London road where playing up I do not think you have to wait for 'East-West' to start up to encounter angry motorists!

 

I

from what ive heard i dont think the perimeter road bridge is going in straight away

 

regards the crossings there, last time i was down there the perimeter crossing was playing up, i operated it and the wee-waas went off, the lights came on but the barriers didn't drop, amazing how many cars and vans creeped on to the crossing after a few minutes wait, they certainly looked shocked and floored it off the crossing when they looked up and saw a train 20ft from their vehicle as we were obscured by trees until they were on the crossing itself!

 

back on the branch in a couple of weeks, from the claydon end this time though

[porkie]

not 100% sure what the motive power was,

Although it did sound like a pair of class 20's with network rail coaches just rumbled past my house heading over the bletchley flyover

[BR(S)]

not 100% sure what the motive power was,

Although it did sound like a pair of class 20's with network rail coaches just rumbled past my house heading over the bletchley flyover

 

Thanks for the info; will be due passed my house later!: http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/U39581/2015/02/09/advanced

 

And if you're signed up to railcam.uk, you can watch it on the Bedford cam.

[porkie]

Lol BRs, Im lucky enough to live between the flyover and the run round section before newton Longville

[lmsforever]

Some of the stations towards to Bletchley are very well preserved by their  owners and the old platforms can be seen as they were low level ,I can remember seeing the odd freight running through some of these places and Verney Juction shame its so derilect now.

[BR(S)]

not 100% sure what the motive power was,

Although it did sound like a pair of class 20's with network rail coaches just rumbled past my house heading over the bletchley flyover

 

It was a Class 31 and DBSO with NR coaches

[porkie]

Lol it did sound good when it opened up. Just had that whistling note which made me think class20, saying that I've never heard 31's in real life

[mike morley]

That rare event - a nice day that coincided with a day off - prompted me to get my push-bike out for a cycle ride today. 

This is what I found.

 

The view from Salden Woods bridge, looking towards Bletchley, showing much evidence of recent clearing.  So recent that dimly visible through the lingering mist was . . .

 

The bridge is the one on the lane that runs from Newton Longville village to the Bottledump roundabout.

 

 

This is the view towards Winslow.  If Bungus the Fogeyman happens to see this picture I'm sure he'll be as pleased as I was to see that there is a prototype for our standards of tracklaying!

 

 

This is from the bridge near Swanbourne Station, looking towards Bletchley again.  There is about half a mile of track missing here, but it is not due to the work that's going on at the moment because my 2007 OS Explorer shows the gap in the track already existed then.  Cycleroute 51 runs along the other side of the hedgerow on the right.  I tried cycling along it in 1990-ish, before Sustrans up-graded the surface, and the mud along this stretch was quite literally knee-deep, with an abandoned Range Rover sunk up to its sump half way along it.  The only way I could get through was by taking to the not-long-abandoned railway line, which was almost as soggy, if not as boggy, and I reckon severe sleeper rot prompted the removal of this stretch of track.

 

There was a lot of work going on actually at Swanbourne Station, but the low sun meant I was unable to photograph any of it.  There was a low-loader carrying some heavy plant parked on what must once have been the goods yard entrance but which I'm sure the current residents of the station house have long regarded as their drive.  Behind the low-loader was a huge mound of bark and timber chippings from where large quantities of vegetation cleared from the line had been put through the shredder.  The mound was almost up to gutter height!  Beyond the mound were assorted site huts and a couple of hundred yards further down the line was a tantalising glimpse of something that at first I thought was a Mk1 carriage, but I later realised was nothing like long enough - perhaps the length of a six-wheeler?

 

Anyway, I carried on and eventually got to Verney Junction.

 

Rather sad to realise that this is all that's left.

 

Unfortunately, within a minute of taking this picture there was a loud Pop! as my rear inner-tube literally exploded with such force it blew out the side of the tyre!  No puncture repair kit in the world would fix something on that scale, at which point I suddenly realised I was nearly 12 miles from home.

 

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've pushed my push-bike a long way today and I think I deserve a pint

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[porkie]

Thanks for sharing the pic's Mike. I've never ventured that far down the line.

All seems to have gone quiet with very little action using the flyover and running behind my house.

[mike morley]

All seems to have gone quiet with very little action using the flyover and running behind my house.

 

I was delivering on the Racecourses estate on Wednesday and the vegetation shredder could be heard hard at work in the vicinity of the Newton Road bridge, so I doubt if it'll be quiet in your vicinity for much longer!

[lmsforever]

Thank you for the up to date pictures ,Verney is a sad place think even the pub has closed down used to be quite busy, back in the sixties the line from Quainton was used to store cripple wagons mostly sixteen ton minerals.The station at Winslow will be well used I think and I look forward to standing on the Buckingham Rd bridge and seeing a train coming up through the cutting from Oxford.