WHAT really grates with many commuters crammed on trains between Oxford and London is the constant promise of ‘things will get better.’ Granted, there have been minor improvements, but nothing to fully ease the cattle-truck conditions and painful fare increases.
But yesterday’s approval for the £130m Evergreen 3 rail service really is a big leap forward. It is not just more trains but the flexibility it offers to the commuter travelling from the city into the capital.
We saw, in the days before the Olympics, how vulnerable the rail system is for Oxford when a slightly warm temperature shut the track near Paddington before a signalling fault at Maidenhead again brought services to a shuddering halt.
It also promises much better links between Oxford and Bicester for local commuters, particularly important given the development there over the coming years.
The line is expected to be open from 2015. That is only three years away, a small timeframe in transport scheme terms, so we hope that it is not an overly-optimistic target date for a scheme that provides real benefit for thousands of people.
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