Bicester Town railway station

Infobox UK station
name = Bicester Town

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caption = Bicester Town railway station in 1979
code = BIT
manager = First Great Western.
locale = Bicester
borough = Cherwell
lowusage0405 = 50,197
lowusage0506 = 48,685
lowusage0607 = 43,950
platforms = 1
years = 1 October 1850
events = Opened (Bicester)
years1 = March 1954
events1 = Renamed (Bicester London Road)
years2 = 1 January 1968
events2 = Closed
years3 = 11 May 1987
events3 = Reopened and renamed (Bicester Town)

Bicester Town is one of two railway stations serving the town of Bicester in Oxfordshire; the other being Bicester North. The station is located 11¾ miles northeast of Oxford, and is operated by First Great Western.

The station was called "Bicester London Road" until its closure, along with the rest of the Oxford-Bletchley section of the Varsity Line, in December 1968. The station was used by several excursion trains through the 1970s and 1980s, before being reopened by Network SouthEast in 1987, as the terminus of the Oxford to Bicester Line.

Infrastructure

The station has one platform, and the line to the east is used only by freight. There are plans, in particular by the East West Rail Consortium, to extend the Oxford-Bicester service to Winslow and Bletchley in the future.

There is another track in front of the platform, aside from the passenger/freight running line. This is in fact the very long reversing siding for the Bicester Military Railway, serving the local MOD depot. [ [http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:mlNnT4rFT58J:www.firstgreatwestern.info/viaoxford.html+bicester+military+railway&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=8&gl=uk] ]

In August 2008, Chiltern Railways announced a proposal to construct a quarter-of-a-mile link between Bicester Town and the Chiltern Main Line, to allow a new Oxford to London service via High Wycombe. It is hoped that, if approval is granted for the scheme, services will start in 2012. [cite web|url=http://www.railnews.co.uk/news/business/2008/08/29-chiltern-railways-upgrade.html|title=Chiltern Railways plan to make Bicester well connected|author=Railnews|date=2008-08-29|accessdate=2008-09-07]

ervices

Mondays to Saturdays, there is an infrequent service to Oxford. There is no service on Sundays.

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References

External links

* [http://www.eastwestrail.org East West Rail Consortium]
* [http://www.eastwestpassengers.8m.com East West Rail Link support group]
* [http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/EastWestrail/ East West Rail petition]
* [http://www.obrag.org.uk/ Oxford-Bicester rail action group]