WORK to extend the car park at Charlbury station is running on time, despite the discovery of a hidden culvert on the site, with completion still due in September.
The £470,000 project will add an extra 75 spaces – a 50 per cent increase from the current 150 parking bays. An area of land between the station approach road and the B4437 to Burford, which used to be leased to the town council for allotments, is being converted to help cope with growing passenger numbers at the station.
The number of passengers using the Cotswold Line station in 2010-11 was 244,586, up by 5.6 per cent from 231,582 in the previous 12 months.
And train operator First Great Western last week applied for planning permission from West Oxfordshire District Council to build a £400,000, 191-space extension to the car park at Hanborough station, almost quadrupling spaces there.
Passenger numbers at the station, which is off the A4095 in Long Hanborough, have surged in recent years, from 76,580 in 2006-7 to 119,210 in 2010-11, a rise of 55 per cent.
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