Cotswold Line

The Cotswold Line is an 86½ mile railway line between Oxford and Hereford in England.

Route
The line comprises all or part of the following Network Rail routes:


 * GW 200 from Oxford
 * GW 310 from Wolvercot Junction
 * GW 300 from Norton Junction
 * GW 340 from Worcester Shrub Hill
 * GW 730 from Shelwick Junction to Hereford

Infrastructure
The line is single track between the following locations.
 * Wolvercote Junction, (3 miles north of Oxford) and Ascott-under-Wychwood.
 * Moreton-in-Marsh and Norton Junction (3 miles South East of Worcester) with a crossing place at Evesham.
 * Worcester Shrub Hill and Worcester Foregate Street.
 * Malvern Wells and Hereford with a crossing place at Ledbury.

Other sections are double track.

Significant civil engineering structures on the line include Campden Tunnel (875 yd), Colwall New Tunnel (1567 yd), Ledbury Tunnel (1323 yd) and viaducts at Worcester and Ledbury.

Improvement plans
Network Rail plans to redouble 20 miles of track from just east of Charlbury to Ascott-under-Wychwood, and from Moreton to around 1 mile west of Evesham Station. This will improve reliability, enable non-stop operations and allow an hourly off peak service to run on the line. The ORR approved the work in June 2008, although the planned work was over-budget and had to await final approval. In December 2008 vegetation was cleared A six-week closure of all or part of the line from Oxford to Worcester for preparatory works took place during July and August 2009. Buses and train diversions were in place. Further weekend work planned for February 2010 was postponed by Network Rail. Some work is now planned for the autumn of 2010, with the majority of the 2nd track being relaid between December 2010 and May 2011 when the line will close at 21.30 Mon-Thurs. The new double track section between Charlbury and Ascott is planned to open on 6 June 2011, with the line between Oxford and Moreton closed during the previous week. The section between Moreton and Evesham is due to reopen as double track on 22 August 2011 with the line closed for the preceding two weeks. .

There are proposals for new stations at Rushwick, Withington and Chipping Campden. A long-standing proposal for a new station at Worcester (Norton) Parkway where the line crosses the Birmingham to Bristol line has made little progress.

Services
Off peak, there is roughly an hourly service from London to Worcester. Due to constraints of the double track, there are some two hour gaps. These services are extensions of the half hourly Oxford fast trains.

During peak hours, both Oxford fasts are extended to Worcester, giving a half hourly service.

Overall, about half the trains continue to Great Malvern and 4 trains per day continue to/from Hereford.

There is also an additional commuter service to/from Oxford in the morning/evening, which additionally calls at the halts (their "parliamentary" service, preventing their closure).

Some trains have to wait at passing loops, extending journey times.

Due to short platforms, passengers alighting at stations bar Shrub Hill, Oxford and Hereford should listen to onboard announcements as to where they should alight. Normally is this in the 2-5 coaches furthest from the ticket barrier in London.

History
The line between Oxford and Worcester was constructed under an 1845 Act of Parliament and opened in 1851 as part of the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway.

The Act required the line to be built to Brunel's broad gauge 7 ft ¼ in but delays, disputes and increasing costs led to its being completed as standard gauge (4 ft 8 ½). The first stage of the Worcester and Hereford Railway opened between Henwick and Malvern Link on 25 July 1859. The bridge over the River Severn was approved for traffic the following year, and trains started running through from Malvern Link to Worcester Shrub Hill station on 17 May 1860. A short extension from Malvern Link to Malvern Wells opened on 25 May 1860.

On 1 July 1860, the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway absorbed both the Worcester & Hereford Railway and the Newport, Abergavenny & Hereford Railway to form the West Midland Railway.

On 13 September 1861, the final stage of the railway opened between Malvern Wells and Shelwick Junction. This junction is just north of Hereford station on the line between Hereford and Shrewsbury, and this finally created a through route from Worcester to Hereford.

The West Midland Railway became part of the Great Western Railway in 1863. The original tunnel through the ridge of the Malvern Hills, known as Colwall Tunnel, was completed in July 1860. However, the tunnel was unstable, and it had to be closed for short periods in 1861 and again in 1907 following rock falls. Eventually the Great Western Railway decided to construct a new tunnel to the south of the existing bore. This opened for traffic on 2 August 1926. The old tunnel was abandoned, and during the Second World War it was used to store ammunition. Following serious floods, which caused parts of embankments to be washed away, it was necessary to close the line for about a fortnight during July/August 2007 for repairs.

In 2007 some trains in the morning rush hour started at Abergavenny railway station but this was discontinued from December 2008.

Poetry
The line features in two well known poems.

Adlestrop by Edward Thomas (poet) and Pershore Station, or A Liverish Journey First Class by Sir John Betjeman.

Oxford to Charlbury
After departing Oxford station, the Cotswold Line shares track with the Cherwell Valley Line to Banbury. About 220 yds north of the station, the line crosses the Sheepwash Channel which links the Oxford Canal to the River Thames. Immediately east of the current line is a swing bridge over the channel which used to carry the LNWR line to its Rewley Road station. The swing bridge is listed as a historic structure. The former station building at Rewley Road has been dismantled and re-erected at Buckinghamshire Railway Centre. The built up area east of the railway, visible across the Oxford Canal, is Jericho, a district which originated as lodgings outside the city walls where travellers could rest if they arrived after the gates were locked. The Eagle Ironworks of W. Lucy & Co. is situated near the first road bridge over the track on Walton Well Road.

After the bridge, the open area to the left is Port Meadow, a water meadow bordering the Thames with a Bronze Age round barrow. The former LNWR Varsity Line branches away to the north east. Proposals exist for re-opening the whole line and are included in the Draft Milton Keynes & South Midlands Sub-Regional Strategy, but there are many planning and funding matters to be resolved.

The line passes through Wolvercote. To the west, Lower Wolvercote was a centre for paper making, mainly for the Oxford University Press from the 17th century until 1998 and is the site of Godstow abbey, a Benedictine nunnery founded in the 12th century. The line passes under the viaduct carrying the A34 Oxford Western bypass and 100 yds further under the A40 road linking London and Fishguard.

The line now turns west and the former link from the LNWR Cambridge line converges from the north. About four miles after Oxford station, Yarnton station was situated in the short distance between here and where the Fairford branch diverged to the south. So far, the line has been close to the River Thames but the river now swings away to the south through a landscape dotted with gravel pits. The line now climbs the valley of the River Evenlode repeatedly crossing and re-crossing the river. Hanborough station serves the villages of Long Hanborough, Church Hanborough, Freeland and Bladon. The Oxford Bus Museum is situated next to Hanborough Station.

Leaving Hanborough, the line enters the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and one mile beyond Hanborough is Combe station. Building the line through Combe was difficult with several deep cuttings, four crossings of the Evenlode, and the diversion of a length of the river. To the south, just after the third river crossing are the remains of North Leigh Roman Villa. 0.9 miles beyond the villa, the line crosses the route of Akeman Street Roman road. The Oxfordshire Way long-distance footpath comes down Akeman Street from the north east to a point about 0.6 mi north of the railway before turning to run through the village of Stonesfield and meet the line at Charlbury station. The next station is Finstock. Between Finstock and Charlbury the deer park to the west of the line is Cornbury Park, venue for the Cornbury Music Festival. The woodlands south west of the park are the remains of Wychwood Forest named after the Hwicce, one of the Anglo-Saxon peoples of Britain. Charlbury station is the first stop for faster trains over the line and retains its original OWWR clapperboard building. Sir Peter Parker lived nearby at Minster Lovell and was a regular user of Charlbury station while chairman of the British Railways Board (1976 to 1983). The patronage of the head of the organisation may have helped to save the line at a time when the Serpell Report was calling for more rail closures.

Charlbury to Moreton-in-Marsh
The line is now heading south west and the remains of D'Oyley Castle can be seen to the north west as the train enters the village of Ascott-under-Wychwood. Few trains call at the Ascott station, but there is a signal box controlling the level crossing and the points at the end of the single track section from Wolvercot Junction. 1.2 miles beyond Ascott is Shipton station which serves the villages of Shipton-under-Wychwood, Milton-under-Wychwood and Fifield.

Still following the Evenlode, the line now turns again to head north west. There is another level crossing near Bruern Abbey. The next junction on the line was at Kingham Station from where the Banbury and Cheltenham Direct Railway routes headed west to Cheltenham via Stow-on-the-Wold and east to King's Sutton near Banbury. The village of Kingham is north of the station. The village west of the station is Bledington. The Oxfordshire Way which has been close to the railway since Akeman Street now turns west to Bourton-on-the-Water but it is replaced by another long distance footpath, the Diamond Way. At Moreton-in-Marsh, the line crosses another major Roman road, the Fosse Way which linked Exeter (Isca Dumnoniorum) to Lincoln (Lindum). Moreton was the headquarters of the railway spot-hire company Cotswold Rail until the HQ was moved to Gloucester.

Moreton-in-Marsh to Hereford


About 28 miles after Oxford is Moreton-in-Marsh Station. This was once the southern end of the Stratford-upon-Avon to Moreton tramway. The line then passes the corner of the Roman town of Dorn. The Cotswold Line at last leaves the Evenlode which drains into the Thames and enters the catchment of the River Severn. The first level crossing appears. The building west of the crossing is a brick works and the neighbouring pits were the site of jurassic clay extraction for the works. The village to the north is Paxford. The large country house to the west is Northwick Park, onetime home of Edward Spencer-Churchill and site of an American Army hospital during World War II and afterwards a centre for Polish refugees. The old stone village of Chipping Campden on the Cotswold Way footpath and once had a station. From here the line goes into cutting, then the 875yd Campden Tunnel under the Cotswold escarpment. In 1851 unrest among the navvies building the tunnel resulted in a riot — the 'Battle of Campden Tunnel'.

The next station is Honeybourne Station. From 1905 to 1977, this was the junction with the Great Western Railway's Cheltenham to Stratford line. The track to the north remains as a link to the large ex-military depot at Long Marston. The large compound to the north with high walls, chapel, and floodlights is Long Lartin prison. There is another level crossing. This used to be Littleton and Badsey station. The line crosses the River Avon into Evesham. Opposite Evesham's Cotswold Line station is the former Midland Railway station, once on the Ashchurch & Barnt Green line. The line then crosses the River Avon again and follows it towards Pershore.

The line crosses over the Cross Country Route and then passes through Norton Junction where there was formerly a station. The junction links the line to the Cross Country Route. Here double track starts. Where the two routes cross, is where the proposed Worcester Parkway station would be built.

After about 57 miles on the line, Worcester Shrub Hill station appears. Here are connections to commuter lines going to Birmingham. If Worcester Parkway is built, Shrub Hill station will close. Worcester Foregate Street station has transfers for the city centre and other lines to Birmingham. Six miles later, the train comes to Malvern Link station. Great Malvern station follows. A couple of miles later, the closed Malvern Wells station appears. After Malvern Wells station, the line enters the 1584 yd long Colwall New Tunnel. It is a rebuilt tunnel; the entrance to the old tunnel can be seen to the north. During World War II, the old tunnel was used by the Royal Navy to store torpedoes. When the tunnel is below the ridge of the Malvern Hills, the line passes from Worcestershire to Herefordshire. The line arrives at Colwall Station. The plant next to the station is used by The Coca-Cola Company to bottle Malvern Water, a local mineral water. Next to the bridge carrying the B4218 over the railway is an unusual five sided cottage. When the railway was built one corner had to be demolished and replaced by a plain wall. After the plant, Ledbury and Hereford stations end the journey on the line.