Sir – West Oxfordshire needs better rail access. Hanborough’s station should be improved. Shipton station should be improved and more trains should stop there. Yarnton station, closed in 1962 and demolished, should be reopened with bus and car access from the A40.

Ten miles of track between Charlbury and Wolvercote should be doubled. Before the General Election, rail minister Claire Perry downgraded this to just two kilometres of double track to be installed at Hanborough by about 2024.

Commercial Estates Group says it wants to help at Hanborough. In return for permission to build 150 homes, CEG would almost treble station car parking, adding 400 spaces to the current 241.

CEG would add a new station approach road, wide enough for buses but twice as long as the current 100 metre approach. The new road would be the wrong side of the railway, so CEG would add a footbridge across the track.

Some new residents would be rail commuters. But others would commute by car, against the flow of at least 641 cars – more, including drop-offs – using Hanborough Station. CEG’s plans were recently exhibited at Hanborough. A spokesmen tried to tell me this plan to choke the A4095 would help Stagecoach to increase the reliability and frequency of its hourly Witney-Woodstock bus!

I was wrong to welcome news of “improving” Hanborough Station before seeing how misconceived CEG’s plan is, and without considering how much it would worsen A4095 congestion. A40 congestion – and hence A4095 rat-running – needs reducing before Hanborough can expand.

The county council’s Eynsham-Duke’s Lock A40 “tidal” bus lane would help; but preferably without an Eynsham park-and-ride, which would add millions to the cost and could become a new centre for congestion.

The lane would also make buses the best way to reach a reopened Yarnton station.

Hugh Jaeger
Chairman, Bus Users Oxford