PASSENGERS have welcomed plans to reinstate direct rail links between Oxford and Swindon for the first time in eight years.

Last week, Go! Co-operative, which aims to be the first cooperatively owned train operating company in the UK, launched an ambitious plan to start a service that would link Oxford and Banbury with Swindon, Chippenham, Westbury and Yeovil, with the possibility of extensions to Weymouth and Birmingham.

Go! hopes to have the route up and running by December next year with four direct trains per day increasing to six trains in future years.

Hugh Jaeger, a spokesman for the Thames Valley branch of campaign group Railfuture, said: “I like the idea in principle. The A420 is a busy road with a reputation for having a high casualty rate.

“Reintroducing a safe, low-carbon alternative way to travel between Oxford and Swindon is good news and I welcome it.

“In Oxford we are just about as far from the sea as you can be and there’s no direct route to any seaside so I think people would appreciate the chance of a day out.”

Mr Jaeger hoped the proposal would strengthen the argument for opening a train station in Grove at the former Wantage Road station, alongside the A338.

Last year the Association of Train Operating Companies said the benefits of a £4m scheme to build new platforms at Grove would far outweigh the cost of reinstating the station and running trains to serve it.

The co-op will apply to run the service under the Office for Rail Regulation’s open access scheme, which allows firms to run routes not served by the main rail franchise operators.

However, an Oxford-Swindon-Bath-Bristol service, run by First Great Western and Thames Trains, was withdrawn in 2003 so capacity could be freed up to provide more services on better established routes to London and Birmingham.

Commuters believe capacity problems could be the biggest stumbling block to this plan.

However, Mr Jaeger argued quadrupling two-track sections of the line between Steventon and Wantage was first proposed by the Great Western Railway in 1947 and would allow both local and high speed train to run on the line.

Chris Bates, chairman of the Cherwell Rail Users Group, said: “I think the Swindon service is needed and the trains were reasonably well used onwards to Bristol.

“Thames identified the route as having some commercial possibility, but the biggest problem is going to be getting Network Rail to find paths that are free to run it on.”

The co-operative needs to raise about £500,000 to launch the service and is looking for small investors willing to put up £100 for 100 shares. So far, £50,000 has been raised.

An open meeting to discuss the plans takes place at the Oxford Quakers’ Meeting House in St Giles’ on Wednesday, April 21. The meeting will runs from 2pm to 4pm.