In The Oxford Times library there is a photograph dating from the 1950s, which shows a petrol and oil depot in the sidings of Oxford Rail Station. The site, the caption tells readers, “may be turned into a bus station to replace Gloucester Green”.

What a wonderfully simple idea, bringing the bus station out of the city centre to create an integrated transport hub next to the railway station. How many people, faced down the years face with difficulties (and the cost of parking in the hugely expensive Worcester Street car park) when picking up friends and relatives at the bus station, must have questioned the wisdom of cramming the bus station into Gloucester Green? This week, we learn that the idea of moving buses to Oxford railway station appears to be finding favour anew with council leaders, now that any lingering possibility of moving the rail station to Oxpens as a centrepiece of the West End redevelopment looks to be dead and buried. Rodney Rose, the county council’s cabinet member for transport, even allows himself to imagine Gloucester Green being opened up as a new retail space.

But the sad truth is that what may have been a straightforward option in the 1950s, would today be far from simple. The large empty space in front of the station is now occupied by the Said Business School and with the site surrounded by apartments and a youth hostel there seems precious little opportunity to expand. The idea presently only figures in the appendix of the new Oxpens masterplan, with the city and county councils busily working with Network Rail on a separate masterplan for the station area. But any such bold approach would depend on Network Rail and its scheme to redevelop Oxford Station, which looks like being on a bigger scale than first thought. People who had hoped for a common sense approach in the 1950s were sorely disappointed, and increasingly the regeneration of the West End seems to be looking increasingly piecemeal rather than visionary. The city is fortunate that vast sums of money look like being available to spend on the railway infrastructure through Oxford. Sadly, the mistakes of the past means there are limits, whatever the funding levels, to what can be achieved on the station site. With Frideswide Square, Oxpens and Westgate all to be transformed, and the county still grappling with the whole issue of city gateways, pedestrianisation and bus routes, those busily drawing up and commissioning masterplans and consultations need to be in very close contact indeed. The early signs are not good. When The Oxford Times asked Network Rail about moving the bus station, a spokesman appeared to know nothing about it.