Boom town for stations (From The Oxford Times)

Boom town for stations

9:36am Friday 25th February 2011 in News By Sam McGregor

BICESTER is Oxfordshire’s boom town when it comes to travel by train.

A new report shows that the town’s two stations — Bicester North (on the Chiltern Line) and Bicester Town (on the branch line from Oxford) — saw a combined 17.8 per cent rise in custom last year.

Operator Chiltern Railways is awaiting the outcome of a public inquiry over its plans to create an £260m Oxford-to-London Marylebone route via Bicester from 2013, called Evergreen Three, which will vastly improve journey times.

The rail operator also confirmed this week it had delayed major work to speed up trains between London and Birmingham from May until August, so any disruption fell during the summer holidays.

Bicester Village claims it has seen an “unprecedented growth” in its customers travelling to the designer shopping centre by rail and that would be likely to rise.

And in a bid to encourage more of its customers to use the railway, the outlet centre has invested £250,000 in a fleet of shuttle buses to transport shoppers from the station.

Miranda Markham, community relations director at Bicester Village, said: “We have witnessed unprecedented growth for the last three years, averaging more than 50 per cent per year as rail travel continues to be the chosen mode of transport for many customers, and in particular international tourists, who value its speed and convenience.

“We are looking forward to the completion of Evergreen Three, which we believe has enormous potential.”

Figures from the Office for Rail Regulation’s annual station usage survey show at Bicester North, 1,126,838 passenger journeys started or ended there from April 2009 to March 2010. That is up 14 per cent from 984,806 journeys in 2008-9.

Meanwhile, at Bicester Town, numbers rocketed from 59,964 to 104,788 — up 75 per cent — thanks to extra trains to Oxford launched in May 2009.

Dr Ian East, from Islip, chairman of the Oxford-Bicester Rail Action Group, said: “The enhanced service at Bicester and Islip has provided more opportunities for people to travel into Oxford or London throughout the day and to come back. If those opportunities weren’t there, then the passengers would not be there.”

Bicester mayor Richard Mould said: “It shows that investment pays.”

James Porter, planning chairman at Bicester Town Council, said the figures were good news for Bicester economically and environmentally.

He said: “The kind of thing happening on the railway is an example of the changing attitude towards Bicester. People are not just commuting out, but commuting in as well.”

l Custom at Bicester North looks set for further growth from late summer, when Chiltern Railways will launch its speeded-up services. Trains will run at up to 100mph when the Chiltern Mainline improvement project is finished.

Commuters will benefit from 45-minute journeys to and from London Marylebone, compared with a current fastest run of 56 minutes.