Cherwell Valley line

Last updated

Cherwell Valley line
Appleford railway station platforms in 2009.jpg
Appleford railway station in 2009
Overview
StatusOperational
Owner Network Rail
Locale Oxfordshire,
South East England
Stations7
Service
Type Heavy rail
System National Rail
Operator(s) CrossCountry
Great Western Railway
Rolling stock Class 165 "Networker Turbo"
Class 220 "Voyager"
Class 221 "Super Voyager"
Class 800 "Intercity Express Train"
Class 802 "Intercity Express Train"
Technical
Track gauge 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Operating speed110 mph (177 km/h) maximum
Route map
Cherwell Valley line.png
(Click to expand)

The Cherwell Valley line is the railway line between Didcot and Banbury via Oxford. It links the Great Western Main Line and the south to the Chiltern Main Line and the Midlands. The line follows the River Cherwell for much of its route between Banbury and Oxford.

Contents

Current and former stations served

The former station for Bletchingdon was always spelt "Bletchington", which is an alternative spelling for that village's toponym. The former halt at Wolvercote was called "Wolvercot Platform", with a deliberately different spelling of the village's name, to distinguish it from the London and North Western Railway's nearby Wolvercote Halt.

The line has a maximum speed of 110 mph (177 km/h). [1]

Services

Passenger services are provided by CrossCountry and Great Western Railway. CrossCountry call only at Oxford and Banbury on their services south to Southampton and north to Birmingham New Street and beyond, while Great Western Railway operate both local and express services on the line, with express services typically continuing onto the Cotswold Line towards Worcester Foregate Street and Hereford, or the Great Western main line towards London Paddington.

The line carries a large and increasing volume of freight between the Port of Southampton and the Midlands, much of it container trains operated by Freightliner.

Tilting

With the exception of the West Coast Main Line, this route was the only route on which domestic UK trains could tilt, something of which Virgin CrossCountry took advantage, using Class 221 Super Voyagers from 2004. [2] After Virgin CrossCountry's successor CrossCountry elected to remove the tilting equipment from its Class 221s to increase reliability and reduce costs, tilt running ceased in 2008. [3]

River Thames

The line makes three crossings of the River Thames between Oxford and Didcot:

Electrification

In 1977 the Parliamentary Select Committee on Nationalised Industries recommended considering electrification of more of Britain's rail network, and by 1979 BR presented a range of options to do so by 2000. [4] Some of these options would have included the whole Cherwell Valley line and the Banbury–Birmingham section of what is now the Chiltern Main Line plus the Coventry to Leamington line. [4] The 1979–90 Conservative governments that succeeded the 1976–79 Labour government did not implement the proposal.

Under plans for the Great Western Electrification project announced in July 2009, the Cherwell Valley line was due to be electrified from Didcot as far as Oxford. [5] However, delays and cost overruns elsewhere caused this to be deferred indefinitely in 2016. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cotswold Line</span> Railway line between Oxford and Hereford

The Cotswold Line is an 86+1⁄2-mile (139.2 km) railway line between Oxford and Hereford in England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chiltern Main Line</span> British railway line

The Chiltern Main Line is a railway line which links London (Marylebone) and Birmingham, the United Kingdom's two largest cities, by a 112-mile (180 km) route via High Wycombe, Bicester, Banbury, Leamington Spa and Solihull.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Didcot Parkway railway station</span> Railway station serving the town of Didcot in Oxfordshire, England

Didcot Parkway is a railway station serving the town of Didcot in Oxfordshire, England. The station was opened as Didcot on 12 June 1844 and renamed Didcot Parkway on 29 July 1985 by British Rail to reflect its role as a park and ride railhead. It is 53 miles 10 chains down the line from London Paddington and is situated between Cholsey to the east and Swindon to the west.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oxford railway station</span> Railway station in Oxfordshire, England

Oxford railway station is a mainline railway station, one of two serving the city of Oxford, England. It is about 0.5 miles (800 m) west of the city centre, north-west of Frideswide Square and the eastern end of Botley Road. It is on the line for trains between London Paddington and Hereford via Worcester Shrub Hill. It is a starting point for fast and local trains to London Paddington and London Marylebone, and for local trains to Reading, Worcester, and Banbury. It is also on the north/south Cross Country Route from Manchester Piccadilly and Newcastle via Birmingham New Street and Reading to Southampton Central and Bournemouth. The station is managed by Great Western Railway, and also served by CrossCountry and Chiltern Railways trains. Immediately to the north is Sheepwash Channel Railway Bridge over the Sheepwash Channel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Banbury railway station</span> Railway station in Oxfordshire, England

Banbury railway station serves the town of Banbury in Oxfordshire, England. The station is operated by Chiltern Railways, on the Chiltern Main Line, and has four platforms in use.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kings Sutton railway station</span> Railway station in Northamptonshire, England

Kings Sutton railway station serves the village of King's Sutton in Northamptonshire, England. It is also one of the nearest railway stations to the town of Brackley. The station is managed by Chiltern Railways, who provide most of the services, including from London Paddington and Marylebone to Oxford and Banbury.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heyford railway station</span> Railway station in Oxfordshire, England

Heyford railway station serves the village of Lower Heyford and surrounding areas in Oxfordshire, England. It is on the Cherwell Valley Line and is ideally located for visiting the Oxford Canal and Heyford Wharf, which are both alongside. The station, and the ten trains each Monday to Saturday serving it, are operated by Great Western Railway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tackley railway station</span> Railway station in Oxfordshire, England

Tackley railway station is on the Cherwell Valley Line in Oxfordshire, England, serving the village of Tackley and its surrounding area. Great Western Railway operates the station and all but one of the trains serving it. The exception is a weekday late night service to Banbury operated by Chiltern Railways.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Radley railway station</span> Railway station in Oxfordshire, England

Radley railway station serves the villages of Radley and Lower Radley and the town of Abingdon, in Oxfordshire, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Culham railway station</span> Railway station in Oxfordshire, England

Culham railway station serves the village of Culham in Oxfordshire, England. It is on the Cherwell Valley Line between Didcot Parkway and Banbury, 56 miles 17 chains (90.5 km) from London Paddington. It is served by local train services provided by Great Western Railway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Appleford railway station</span> Railway station in Oxfordshire, England

Appleford railway station serves the village of Appleford-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, England, as well as nearby settlements such as Sutton Courtenay. It is on the Cherwell Valley Line between Didcot Parkway and Banbury, 55 miles 16 chains (88.8 km) measured from London Paddington. The station and all trains serving it are operated by Great Western Railway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shipton-on-Cherwell</span> Human settlement in England

Shipton-on-Cherwell is a village on the River Cherwell about 2 miles (3 km) north of Kidlington in Oxfordshire, England. The village is part of the civil parish of Shipton-on-Cherwell and Thrupp.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oxford Road Halt railway station</span> Disused railway station in Oxfordshire, England

Oxford Road Halt was a railway station on the Varsity Line 1 mile (1.6 km) west of the hamlet of Water Eaton, Oxfordshire.

Wolvercot Platform was a halt on the Great Western Railway line between Oxford and Banbury. The line is now known as the Cherwell Valley Line or the "Oxford Canal Line".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kidlington railway station</span> Former railway station in England

Kidlington railway station opened in 1855 on the Oxford and Rugby Railway to serve the adjacent Oxfordshire village of Kidlington, and act as a railhead for the town of Woodstock, 2.5 miles (4.0 km) away. It became a junction station in 1890 upon the opening of the Blenheim and Woodstock Branch Line, and served the area for over 100 years before falling victim to the programme of closures initiated by the Beeching Report in 1964. Following many proposals for its reopening, a new station to serve Kidlington opened in October 2015 at Oxford Parkway on the Oxford to Bicester Line.

Abingdon Road Halt railway station was built by the Great Western Railway to serve South Hinksey, a village near Oxford.

The Birmingham and Oxford Junction Railway was an English railway line promoted by the Great Western Railway to gain a route from its southern base towards the industrial centres of the West Midlands, and in due course the north-west. It overtook another GWR subsidiary, the unbuilt Oxford and Rugby Railway, and the Birmingham Extension Railway which was to build a new independent station in the city. It was authorised in 1846 and formed a single project to connect Birmingham and Oxford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electric Spine</span> English rail electrification project

The "Electric Spine" was the name for part of a, now largely cancelled, rolling programme of railway electrification projects in England initially estimated to cost £800 million, but later thought to cost close to £3 billion. The aim was to form 25 kV AC overhead-wire electrified links northward from the Port of Southampton to major cities in northern and central England and dry port container terminals in the Midlands. The government wanted efficient electric-hauled freight trains to compete with road haulage.

References

  1. ↑ "Western Route Sectional Appendix December 2021" (PDF). Network Rail . 4 September 2021. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  2. ↑ "Debut trip for new tilting train". BBC News. 29 April 2004.
  3. ↑ Miles, Tony (August 2008). "Cross Country stops Tilting". Modern Railways. Vol. 65, no. 719. Shepperton: Ian Allan. p. 71. ISSN   0026-8356.
  4. 1 2 Anonymous (Winter 1979). Railway Electrification. British Railways Board (Central Publicity Unit). pp. 0–2, 8.
  5. ↑ "Rail Electrification" (PDF). Britain's Transport Infrastructure. Department for Transport. July 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 August 2009.
  6. ↑ "Great Western electrification: Intercity line work 'deferred'". BBC News. 8 November 2016.
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