Oxford Parkway railway station

Oxford Parkway railway station is a railway station at Water Eaton, Oxfordshire, on the Oxford–Bicester line. Full regular weekday service began on Monday 26 October 2015,[2] although the first passengers travelled the previous day on a Sunday timetable.[3]

Oxford Parkway
LocationWater Eaton, Cherwell
England
Coordinates51.8042°N 1.2745°W / 51.8042; -1.2745
Grid referenceSP501119
Owned byNetwork Rail
Managed byChiltern Railways
Platforms2
Other information
Station codeOXP
History
Original companyNetwork Rail
Key dates
25 October 2015Opened[1]
Passengers
2015/16 0.275 million
2016/17 0.810 million
2017/18 0.939 million
2018/19 1.083 million
2019/20 1.024 million
Location
Notes
Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

The station, whose name was changed in September 2013 from the provisional "Water Eaton Parkway",[4][5] lies between Kidlington and Oxford beside the existing Water Eaton park-and-ride site.[6] It serves Kidlington, north Oxford and nearby villages. The station forms part of a multi-modal transport interchange node, connecting travellers by bus, cycle, on foot and by car with rail transport. It is also intended to attract park-and-ride traffic from the busy A34, A40 and A44 roads.

Services to Oxford started on 11 December 2016.[7][8]

Description

The station is part of Project Evergreen 3, funded and managed by Chiltern Railways. It is served every half-hour by trains from London Marylebone. Chiltern Railways opened the station in October 2015 for trains towards Bicester and London Marylebone, with services to Oxford railway station beginning in December 2016, delayed from Spring 2016 as locals objected to the extra noise that would be caused.[9][10] The journey time to London is about an hour. Network Rail completed the final track upgrades on this portion of the route in September 2016[11] allowing driver training runs on the line ahead of the inauguration of new services on 11 December.

The East West Rail Consortium's planned rail service between Oxford and Milton Keynes Central and Bedford Midland will also serve Oxford Parkway.[12]

The station is on the site of the Buckinghamshire Railway's temporary Oxford Banbury Road terminus (1850–51), and north-east of the site of the former Oxford Road Halt (1905–26). In 1942 a Government grain silo was built next to the site as part of a Second World War network to concentrate scarce food and distribute it by rail. It was in use until the late 1980s.[13] In October 2013 Chiltern Railways had it demolished as part of site preparation for the new station and car park.[14]

The station in November 2015, soon after opening

Water Eaton Park-and-Ride is immediately adjacent, with bus services to central Oxford[15] and to the Headington hospitals (Monday to Friday only).[16]

The station lies on National Cycle Route 51, which links Oxford to Bicester and further East.[17] Oxford Parkway has covered two-level parking for 152 pedal cycles adjacent to the entrance, additional to the existing cycle parking at the nearby Park & Ride. It has CCTV surveillance.[18]

The car park has 815 standard spaces, plus 41 spaces for passengers with reduced mobility. There is realtime information about remaining available spaces.[19] There is a fee to park a car[6] but the first hour is free. There are also spaces for 30 motorcycles.

Purchase of rail travel tickets is by machine; there is no ticket office at the station,[18] but there is an information desk. Toilet and refreshment facilities are also present.

Grain silo

Prior to the station's construction, the site was occupied by a large grain silo. This followed a standard pattern common to other wartime silos, taking the form of two banks of ten seven-storey high cylindrical reinforced concrete silos side by side with the space between them filled by a brick access shaft. In the shaft there were associated grain handling machinery and two enormous grain driers which extended the full height of the building. It was built in the early 1940s and closed in the late 1980s, after which the yard surrounding it was used by several local businesses including a pet food supplier and a car breaker.[20]

Construction
Platforms under construction in April 2015, looking towards Islip

Building of the station began in late October 2014 and was sufficiently advanced for services to begin 12 months later.

Services

All services at Oxford Parkway are operated by Chiltern Railways. The current off-peak service in trains per hour is:

Preceding station National Rail Following station
Oxford   Chiltern Railways
London Marylebone – Oxford		   Islip
or Bicester Village
  Future services  
Oxford   East West Rail
Reading – Bedford or Milton Keynes		   Bicester Village

References
  1. "Oxford Parkway opens". Today's Railways UK. Platform 5 (168): 14–15. November 2015.
  2. "UPDATE: First trains from Oxford Parkway arrive at London Marylebone (From Oxford Mail)". Oxfordmail.co.uk. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  3. "Keen passengers board the first trains to leave Oxford Parkway". Oxford Mail. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  4. "APPLICATION TO THE OFFICE OF RAIL REGULATION FOR A PASSENGER TRACK ACCESS AGREEMENT, OR AMENDMENT TO A PASSENGER TRACK ACCESS AGREEMENT UNDER SECTIONS 17-22A OF THE RAILWAYS ACT 1993" (PDF). Networkrail.co.uk. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  5. "Chiltern Railways names new Oxfordshire station Oxford Parkway" (Press release). Chiltern Railways. 20 September 2013. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 20 September 2013.
  6. "Water Eaton park and ride – OX2 8HA | Oxfordshire County Council". Oxfordshire.gov.uk. 22 September 2015. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  7. "New Chiltern Railways timetable from December 11th 2016" (PDF). Chiltern Railways. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 December 2016. Retrieved 3 December 2016.
  8. Ltd, swlines. "Realtime Trains | 1Y03 0743 Oxford to London Marylebone". www.realtimetrains.co.uk. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
  9. "Oxford-Marylebone service delayed until December".
  10. "Chiltern's Oxford city centre-London services pushed to December".
  11. "Oxford to Marylebone track now complete"Network Rail Media Centre press release 21 September 2016
  12. "Prospectus" (PDF). East West Rail Consortium. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2012. Retrieved 14 December 2011.
  13. Memory Lane (21 October 2013). "a look back at the history of the Water Eaton grain silo as wartime facility nears its end". Oxford Mail. Newsquest. Retrieved 13 December 2013.
  14. Fantato, Damian (2 November 2013). "Water Eaton grain silo is demolished". Oxford Mail. Newsquest. Retrieved 13 December 2013.
  15. "500 : park&ride : Oxford Bus Company". Parkandride.oxfordbus.co.uk. 22 October 2015. Archived from the original on 8 November 2015. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  16. "Stagecoach Bus Timetable" (PDF). Stagecoachbus.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 September 2015. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  17. "Route 51 – Map". Sustrans. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  18. "National Rail Enquiries – Station facilities for Oxford Parkway". Nationalrail.co.uk. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  19. "Park and ride car parks". Voyager.oxfordshire.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
  20. "a look back at the history of the Water Eaton grain silo as wartime facility nears its end". Oxford Mail. Retrieved 3 December 2016.
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