Chiltern Railways’ new rail link between Oxford and London Marylebone was launched in October 2015 based on their new Oxford Parkway Station near Kidlington. The trains ran on a twice-hourly service through Bicester Town and along a new stretch of track to connect with the mainline and run through High Wycombe into London,
Trains are still unable to access the Oxford Station, located close to the centre of the city at the end of the Botley Road, pending the completion of the upgrade of track and the construction of a new platform. Currently a bus shuttle service operates between Oxford Station and Oxford Parkway Station – but this has not prevented the new service from getting off to a very good start.
The Chiltern Railways Oxford Parkway to London rail link has passed the 100,000 passenger mark just four months after it opened in October 2015 and ahead of schedule.
Last month, staff at Oxford Parkway celebrated this landmark figure being reached. This means that customers have already travelled around 6.3 million miles on the new line.
Dave Penney, Managing Director of Chiltern Railways said: “We’re delighted to see so many passengers using the new station. We designed the facilities to make it as easy as possible for customers with new ticket machines, a large car park and fast access to the trains; the location was also carefully planned and is central to its success as users no longer need to travel into the centre of Oxford for trains to London. We always knew we had the right combination, but we’ve been delighted by how quickly passenger numbers have grown; feedback has been extremely positive.”
Oxford Parkway is a new station on the outskirts of Oxford designed explicitly to be attractive to motorists. Immediately adjacent to the congested A34, it is close to the A40 and A44 trunk roads and has 1,500 car parking spaces at the site.
Chiltern Railways is expecting the final track and facilities in Oxford will be completed in time for them to launch the full service from Oxford city centre to London Marylebone commencing on 12December 2016.