What's happening on the Cotswolds line?

More people are choosing to travel on the Cotswolds line than ever before, and the railway is very close to capacity.

 

Network Rail and First Great Western are investing in your railway network to sustain improved punctuality, provide extra capacity for more trains, and reduce the impact of delays.

 

The first phase of work began in 2008, and work will be completed in the summer of 2011.

 

New Track

 

The Cotswolds Line is a single track railway along much of its length.  This means relatively minor delays can quickly escalate to affect other services, and there’s not enough capacity to respond to increasing demand for train services.

 

Network Rail is converting 20 miles of the Cotswolds Line to double track.

 

This will make it easier for trains to pass each other, and will also free up capacity, allowing trains to run more frequently on the line.

 

Better Stations

 

Improvements are being made to stations along the length of the Cotswolds Line.

 

Charlbury, Ascott-under-Wychwood and Honeybourne stations will benefit from new platforms with step-free access, new lights and digital passenger information systems.

 

At Kingham, Moreton-in-Marsh and Evesham stations there will be improvements to passenger shelters, toilet facilities, footbridges, station canopies and lighting.

How this affects your journeys

Network Rail and First Great Western are working together to minimise the impact of this work on your journeys so that the majority of train services will be unaffected.

Most of the work has been scheduled to take place when trains aren’t running or when fewer people choose to travel.  For example, all new track will be laid at night, only affecting the last two trains on weeknights from December 2010 until May 2011.

When services are affected First Great Western will be providing alternative transport to make sure you can still get to where you need to go.

They will also be letting you know about any work that is likely to affect you in advance, so look out for posters and leaflets at your station.

 

Timeline

 

Summer 2011

 

Work is progressing to add 20 miles of new double track.  Although most of the work has been taking place overnight, there will be three periods when no trains will run  during the day

Saturday 28 May until Sunday 5 June 2011 (inclusive)

No trains between Oxford and Kingham.

 

Saturday 6 August until Sunday 14 August 2011 (inclusive)

No trains between Charlbury and Worcester Shrub Hill.

 

Monday 15 August to Sunday 21 August 2011 (inclusive)

No trains between Moreton-in-Marsh and Worcester Shrub Hill

During these periods rail replacement buses will operate; the times of these will be available from First Great Western's website or from National Rail Enquiries.

 

Railbus C1, T1 and X8 will run to their usual timetable during these periods and will not connect with rail replacement buses.

 

Train and bus changes from 12 September 2011

 

First Great Western will introduce a new timetable from 12 September that seeks to make use of the extra 20 miles of track by introducing additional services between Oxford and Moreton-in-Marsh, and with some faster journey times.  Your Railbus timetables will be reissued to coincide with these train changes so that bus connections are maintained at Charlbury and KIngham stations.

 

Further Information

 

If you would like to be kept up to date with this project visit www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/northcotswolds and register for the North Cotswolds Line Improvement email updates.