Trains of Natural Beauty

The Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire are considered an Area of Natural Beauty (AONB) and as such I've titled this post accordingly to fit with Chiltern Railways. The company is one of the best in our privatised rail network and is consistently high in passenger satisfaction (usually second after c2c).

© Lewis J.N.

Chiltern Railways have a unique contract with Network Rail which lasts 20 years instead of the usual 7, which began in 2002, and the purpose of this was to carry out a number of rebuilding and restructuring works, which have included:

- Opening brand new platforms 5 and 6 at London Marylebone where previously were carriage sidings, as well as platforms 3 and 4 at Birmingham Moor Street.

- Completely rebuilding Neasden Junction to favour services towards West Ruislip to allow line speeds to be increased, as well as a new 'down' line at Northolt Junction and improvements at Aynho

68008 and 68010 sit at Marylebone ready to depart for
the West Midlands.
© Lewis J.N.

- Realigning track and platforms at stations such as Bicester North to increase line speed

- A brand new TMD at Wembley

- Procuring and refurbishing Mk3 coaches and DVTs for brand new hauled 'Silver Mainline' trains running between London and Birmingham in as little as 90 minutes. These were initially pulled by class 67 units from Wrexham & Shropshire, but have more recently been replaced by brand new class 68 locomotives leased to Chiltern by DRS.

The latest of these works will be the main focus of this post: opening a brand new railway line between London and Oxford by building a brand new spur of track to link the existing Chiltern Main Line with the Bicester Town - Islip - Oxford line. The latter of these two was part of the First Great Western franchise until it was taken over by Chiltern in 2011 in preparation for the new line.

In 2013 this line was closed, in order for it to be doubled up to two tracks, new stations to be built at Bicester Town (from now to be called Bicester Village), Islip and Oxford Parkway, the last of which is handily located beside the Water Eaton Park & Ride site.

The line reopened on October 25th 2015, with the brand new service being advertised all over the place by Chiltern, clearly very proud of their new line. So far, trains only run as far as Oxford Parkway, from which passengers must use the P&R 500 bus to get to Oxford City Centre.

On the first day of service, a special timetable was in operation due to a match at Wembley and a line closure north of Banbury. This unusual amalgamation of events allowed two silver 68 hauled sets out onto the new line - not normal on a Sunday service - but was very fitting to commemorate the arrival of a new service to the people of Oxfordshire.

68014 at Oxford Parkway on the first day of service.
© Tom Cooling

No doubt the addition of this new spur is making the timetabling even more difficult, but the service to Oxford Parkway is frequent and reliable with all trains given either 'M' (mainline) or 'MH' (mainline hybrid) status. A few trains run direct between Bicester and Marylebone, but many call at High Wycombe, Princes Risborough and/or Haddenham & Thame Parkway.

Islip, the intermediary station between Oxford Parkway and Bicester Village is required to receive 7 trains per day in each direction, and passengers are allowed to double back via Oxford Parkway when a direct Islip train is unavailable.

OXFORD PARKWAY - taken from the ground up just like it was built!
© Owen Hurcum

Having now visited Oxford Parkway and Islip stations, I can tell you that whilst there is nothing special, there is definitely a sign of dedication with the stations - they are designed to be simple and effective and yet they are modern.

ISLIP, the station for the village.
© Lewis J.N.

If you've not yet paid a visit to the new Chiltern line I would highly recommend that you take one of the class 68 services (Mon-Fri 0724 1Y12 OXP-MYB, 1818 1T54 MYB-OXP or 1929 1Y75 OXP-MYB). The new silver trains are simply fabulous with excellently refurbished Mark III coaches and brand new Vossloh-built class 68 locomotives which feature a 16-cylinder, 38000 horsepower engine.

68013 arrives at Oxford Parkway with the 1T54 service from Marylebone.
© Lewis J.N.

The line into Oxford mainline station will open in spring 2016; no doubt seeing a silver Chiltern 68 set alongside a green GWR HST will make all enthusiasts feel rather warm inside!

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