A DAY of changes was on the cards for Oxfordshire Rail passengers today with new-look trains taking to the tracks on the Chiltern and Great Western routes.
The first set of Chiltern Railways’ silver Mainline coaches to be fitted with sliding power doors was entered service on the 6.19am express from Birmingham to London Marylebone, which runs non-stop from Banbury.
The electric, centrally-locked doors replace old-fashioned manual slam doors fitted to the coaches when they were built in the mid-1970s.
They will allow trains to make shorter station stops by doing away with the need for staff to shut doors by hand.
And a Class 180 Adelante train operated a First Great Western passenger service for the first time in more than three years this morning.
After two months of crew training trips, an Adelante worked the 11.20am service from London to Great Malvern, via Oxford and the Cotswold Line. It was also due to work the 5.18pm semi-fast service from London to Oxford, serving Cholsey, Didcot Parkway and Radley.
Five Adelante trains are being brought back into use by FGW over the next two months to ease overcrowding, due to growing passenger traffic.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here