Bid for new Oxford to Witney railway line study to be submitted

A group campaigning to re-establish an Oxfordshire railway will bid for government funds to carry out a feasibility study.

Witney Oxford Transport will submit a bid to the Restoring Your Railway Fund to explore plans to build a new line between Oxford and Witney.

If successful, a grant will pay experts to determine if a new line is possible.

Passenger services between Witney and Oxford used to operate on the Fairford Branch Line, which closed in 1962.

Witney also had a goods station accessed by freight trains in Station Lane until 1970, which is now the site of the town's Sainsbury's supermarket. The former branch line, created in 1861, no longer exists.

Draft proposals by the group include a 14.2 mile (22.9km) rail line from a junction on the existing Cotswold Line at Yarnton to Carterton.

Along the new line, new stations would be built in Eynsham's "garden village", which is earmarked for 2,200 homes, in Witney by the A40 southern bypass, and in the west of Carterton.

Campaigners said the cost of such a railway were estimated to range from £12m to £20m per mile.

Charlie Maynard, chairman of Witney Oxford Transport, said such a line could enable journey times between Carterton and Oxford of 22 minutes.

"Our goal here is to join the dots of Oxford, Eynsham, Witney and Carterton. How that is done we are very open to," he said.

The group launched its campaign for a railway as an alternative to the A40, which was being used by an estimated 32,000 vehicles a day between Oxford and Witney before the coronavirus pandemic.

Last year, Oxfordshire county councillors backed the idea of carrying out a study into whether a rail link could be a solution to congestion problems on the A40, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

But Yvonne Constance, the council's cabinet member for transport, said previous studies had shown such scheme was not financially viable.

The council has started work on a £102m scheme to build bus and cycle lanes on the A40, so it can "unlock" 5,050 homes to be built in West Oxfordshire.

Layla Moran, Oxford West and Abingdon MP, said she "fully supports" proposals to re-establish a Witney to Oxford rail line, which she said would be a "long-term solution to a long-standing problem".

Witney MP Robert Courts said Witney Oxford Transport had "some interesting ideas" and added he was "pleased that the group is now looking to do this detailed work and that they are engaging with the appropriate partners in order to do so".

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