Oxford Parkway railway station

Oxford Parkway railway station is a railway station at Water Eaton, Oxfordshire, on the Oxford–Bicester line. Full regular weekday service began on Monday 26 October 2015,^[2] although the first passengers travelled the previous day on a Sunday timetable.^[3]

"Oxford Parkway" redirects here. For the Park and Ride bus service, see Park and ride bus services in the United Kingdom § England.

Oxford Parkway
General information
Location	Water Eaton, Cherwell England
Coordinates	51.8042°N 1.2745°W / 51.8042; -1.2745
Grid reference	SP501119
Owned by	Network Rail
Managed by	Chiltern Railways
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	OXP
History
Original company	Network Rail
Key dates
25 October 2015	Opened[1]
Passengers
2018/19	1.083 million
2019/20	1.024 million
2020/21	0.128 million
2021/22	0.457 million
2022/23	0.585 million
Location
Notes Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

The station, whose name was changed in September 2013 from the provisional "Water Eaton Parkway",^[4][5] lies between Kidlington and Oxford beside the existing Water Eaton park-and-ride site.^[6] It serves Kidlington, north Oxford and nearby villages. The station forms part of a multi-modal transport interchange node, connecting travellers by bus, cycle, on foot and by car with rail transport. It is also intended to attract park-and-ride traffic from the busy A34, A40 and A44 roads.

Services to Oxford started on 11 December 2016.^[7]

Description

The station is part of Project Evergreen 3, funded and managed by Chiltern Railways. It is served every half-hour by trains from London Marylebone. Chiltern Railways opened the station in October 2015 for trains towards Bicester and London Marylebone, with services to Oxford railway station beginning in December 2016, delayed from Spring 2016 as locals objected to the extra noise that would be caused.^[8][9] The journey time to London is about an hour. Network Rail completed the final track upgrades on this portion of the route in September 2016^[10] allowing driver training runs on the line ahead of the inauguration of new services on 11 December.

The East West Rail Consortium's planned rail service between Oxford and Milton Keynes Central and Bedford Midland will also serve Oxford Parkway.^[11]

The station is on the site of the Buckinghamshire Railway's temporary Oxford Banbury Road terminus (1850–51), and north-east of the site of the former Oxford Road Halt (1905–26). In 1942 a Government grain silo was built next to the site as part of a Second World War network to concentrate scarce food and distribute it by rail. It was in use until the late 1980s.^[12] In October 2013 Chiltern Railways had it demolished as part of site preparation for the new station and car park.^[13]

The station in November 2015, soon after opening

The Oxford Parkway (Formerly known as Water Eaton) Park-and-Ride is immediately adjacent, with bus services to central Oxford,^[14] London Oxford Airport and to the Headington hospitals (Monday to Friday only).^[15]

The station lies on National Cycle Route 51, which links Oxford to Bicester and further East.^[16] Oxford Parkway has covered two-level parking for 152 pedal cycles adjacent to the entrance, additional to the existing cycle parking at the nearby Park & Ride. It has CCTV surveillance.^[17]

The car park has 815 standard spaces, plus 41 spaces for passengers with reduced mobility. There is realtime information about remaining available spaces.^[18] There is a fee to park a car^[6] but the first hour is free. There are also spaces for 30 motorcycles.

Purchase of rail travel tickets is by machine; there is no ticket office at the station,^[17] but there is an information desk. Toilet and refreshment facilities are also present.

Grain silo

Prior to the station's construction, the site was occupied by a large grain silo. This followed a standard pattern common to other wartime silos, taking the form of two banks of ten seven-storey high cylindrical reinforced concrete silos side by side with the space between them filled by a brick access shaft. In the shaft there were associated grain handling machinery and two enormous grain driers which extended the full height of the building. It was built in the early 1940s and closed in the late 1980s, after which the yard surrounding it was used by several local businesses including a pet food supplier and a car breaker.^[19]

Construction

Platforms under construction in April 2015, looking towards Islip

Building of the station began in late October 2014 and was sufficiently advanced for services to begin 12 months later.

Services

v t e Railways around Oxford
Legend
to Banbury to Worcester to Bicester to Witney and Fairford Oxford Parkway Yarnton Oxford Road Halt Yarnton Loop City boundary Wolvercot Junction Wolvercot Platform Wolvercote Halt Oxford North Junction Port Meadow Halt Exchange sidings Sheepwash Channel Rewley Road Swing Bridge Oxford Oxford Rewley Road Osney Rail Bridge Gasworks Bridge Oxford Gas Works River Isis City boundary Oxford (Grandpont) Goods Hinksey Halt Millstream Junction Abingdon Road Halt Kennington Junction Radley Iffley Halt to Didcot Kennington Railway Bridge Littlemore Morris Cowley BMW Mini terminal Horspath Halt to Princes Risborough

All services at Oxford Parkway are operated by Chiltern Railways. The current off-peak service in trains per hour is:

• 2 tph to London Marylebone
• 2 tph to Oxford

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Oxford		Chiltern Railways London Marylebone – Oxford		Islip or Bicester Village
	Future services
Oxford		East West Rail Reading – Bedford or Milton Keynes		Bicester Village

References

1. "Oxford Parkway opens". Today's Railways UK (168). Platform 5: 14–15. November 2015.
2. "UPDATE: First trains from Oxford Parkway arrive at London Marylebone (From Oxford Mail)". Oxfordmail.co.uk. 26 October 2015. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
3. "Keen passengers board the first trains to leave Oxford Parkway". Oxford Mail. 25 October 2015. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
4. "APPLICATION TO THE OFFICE OF RAIL REGULATION FOR A PASSENGER TRACK ACCESS AGREEMENT, OR AMENDMENT TO A PASSENGER TRACK ACCESS AGREEMENT UNDER SECTIONS 17-22A OF THE RAILWAYS ACT 1993" (PDF). Networkrail.co.uk. Archived (PDF) from the original on 15 March 2016. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
5. "Chiltern Railways names new Oxfordshire station Oxford Parkway" (Press release). Chiltern Railways. 20 September 2013. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 20 September 2013.
6. "Water Eaton park and ride – OX2 8HA | Oxfordshire County Council". Oxfordshire.gov.uk. 22 September 2015. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
7. "New Chiltern Railways timetable from December 11th 2016" (PDF). Chiltern Railways. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 December 2016. Retrieved 3 December 2016.
8. "Oxford-Marylebone service delayed until December". Archived from the original on 31 January 2016. Retrieved 29 January 2016.
9. "Chiltern's Oxford city centre-London services pushed to December". Archived from the original on 24 January 2016. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
10. "Oxford to Marylebone track now complete" Archived 23 September 2016 at the Wayback MachineNetwork Rail Media Centre press release 21 September 2016
11. "Prospectus" (PDF). East West Rail Consortium. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2012. Retrieved 14 December 2011.
12. Memory Lane (21 October 2013). "a look back at the history of the Water Eaton grain silo as wartime facility nears its end". Oxford Mail. Newsquest. Archived from the original on 13 December 2013. Retrieved 13 December 2013.
13. Fantato, Damian (2 November 2013). "Water Eaton grain silo is demolished". Oxford Mail. Newsquest. Archived from the original on 13 December 2013. Retrieved 13 December 2013.
14. "500 : park&ride : Oxford Bus Company". Parkandride.oxfordbus.co.uk. 22 October 2015. Archived from the original on 8 November 2015. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
15. "Stagecoach Bus Timetable" (PDF). Stagecoachbus.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 September 2015. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
16. "Route 51 – Map". Sustrans. Archived from the original on 9 October 2015. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
17. "National Rail Enquiries – Station facilities for Oxford Parkway". Nationalrail.co.uk. Archived from the original on 10 November 2015. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
18. "Park and ride car parks". Voyager.oxfordshire.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 27 October 2015.
19. "a look back at the history of the Water Eaton grain silo as wartime facility nears its end". Oxford Mail. 21 October 2013. Archived from the original on 13 December 2013. Retrieved 3 December 2016.

External links

• Chiltern Railways official home page
• Evergreen 3 Project