For some weeks now, a ribbon of stone chippings has been slowly advancing from Wolvercote towards Oxford alongside the railway tracks which link the city with Banbury and Worcester.

It may not be much to look at now but this project to reinstate a line removed more than 40 years ago represents the first small step in the most concentrated programme of railway investment in and around Oxford since the early 1850s, which will transform the network for the 21st century.

The next six years will see the creation of a second link to London — via Bicester — in conjunction with the revival of the line to Bletchley, now part of the fast-growing city of Milton Keynes, and on to Bedford; the installation of overhead power cables allowing electric trains to operate; new signals; extra track (including that fourth line between Oxford and Wolvercote); and a new station to serve as a fitting gateway for Oxford.

While it may be over-egging the pudding to describe Oxford as “the centre of the UK rail universe outside of London” — the words of Oxfordshire County Council's deputy leader Rodney Rose last week — with huge sums being invested elsewhere too, it’s still quite a list of projects for a city the size of Oxford.

A few years ago, even the most ardent supporters of the railways, never mind hard-bitten commuters, would have thought enhancement projects on this scale were near-fantasy, but the seeds of change were sown by Chiltern Railways’ schemes to reinstate double track on its route through Bicester to Banbury and Network Rail’s similar project on the Cotswold Line between Oxford and Worcester, both reversing 1970s cost-cutting.

As a Cotswold Line commuter, I have seen the benefits of this work, with punctuality of trains into Oxford much improved in the past couple of years, but trains the other way are still subject to delays incurred between London and Oxford, where the pay-off from electrification, resignalling and the rebuilding of Reading station and the rail route through the Berkshire town is still a few tantalising years away.

But much of the effort and money being invested in the forthcoming wave of enhancements will be wasted if Oxford does not get a new station that is able to handle the sustained growth in custom we have seen in recent years and the many extra passengers that the new and enhanced routes serving the city will bring.

Network Rail’s initial proposal for a couple of extra platforms, unveiled at the start of the year, had the feel of tinkering round the edges of the existing — inadequate — station. However, the subsequent appointment by the rail industry and local councils of architects Aedas — who have a track record in rail and airport projects — with a brief to examine the station and the surrounding area, including the bottleneck that is the Botley Road bridge, is cause for optimism that Oxford will get a 21st-century railway station to go with its 21st-century railway.