WITH reference to your report on Thursday, November 6, about Chiltern Railways' plan to reopen the Oxford to Cowley line “Special train shows potential for reopening Oxford’s Cowley branch line to passengers.”

This line originally went all the way to Princes Risborough, where it met the branches to Aylesbury and Watlington, and the main line from London to Birmingham.

The main line is of course still there, and so is the Aylesbury branch, but although the Watlington branch suffered the same fate as the Oxford line, part of it is being preserved as the Chinnor & Princes Risborough Railway. However, the last passenger train to Cowley was more recent than 1963.

In the late 1970s, the Oxford Publishing Company (based at the Headington Roundway, and specialising in railway transport books) organised two or three trips by train to the closed-to-passengers branch lines in Oxfordshire.

We went to Bicester station (via Islip) on the old London & North Western Railway line, all the way to the buffers at Horspath via Kennington Junction, down what was left of the Wallingford branch via Cholsey, and finally to Abingdon station via Radley.

Maybe I have left one branch out, but we certainly all got out at all the terminal and Cowley signal box, and had a good look round and took pictures. The Abingdon line is now completely gone, but the Wallingford branch is preserved as the Cholsey & Wallingford Railway. The Bicester line awaits reopening, and maybe the Cowley line will also now reopen to passengers.

Len Porter, London Road, Headington, Oxford

Today’s letters

  • Do you want alerts delivered straight to your phone via our WhatsApp service? Text NEWS or SPORT or NEWS AND SPORT, depending on which services you want, and your full name to 07767 417704. Save our number into your phone’s contacts as Oxford Mail WhatsApp and ensure you have WhatsApp installed.