WHILE most people were enjoying a relaxing bank holiday weekend, a small army of railway engineers was working flat out on modernisation of the Cotswold Line in west Oxfordshire.

The passage of the last Worcester to Oxford train of the day through Wolvercot junction on Friday marked the start of nine days of intensive round-the-clock activity between Charlbury and Ascott-under-Wychwood.

By Sunday night four miles of new double track between the two stations, a digital signal system and extra platforms at both stations must be ready for passenger trains to start running again the next morning.

Among the most important phases of the work completed so far was the installation on Sunday of a new junction point south of Charlbury station, where the single track from Oxford will meet the new double track.

The same day, much of the new footbridge at the station was lifted in position. The rest of the bridge was due to be fitted today.

With the junction point in place, the first train to run through Charlbury station on double track since November 1971 was an engineering train from Oxford’s Hinksey Sidings on Monday morning.

New track was also laid over the weekend at Shorthampton, near Chadlington, and the final missing section of double track, through Ascott-under-Wychwood station, was put in place overnight between Monday and yesterday, while a new digital signal control panel has been fitted at Ascott signalbox.

Speaking at Charlbury station, Network Rail’s Cotswold Line redoubling project manager David Northey told the Oxford Mail: “We have teams of track engineers, signal and telecom engineers, civil engineers and bridge engineers at work. We’re ahead of our programme with some aspects of the work and slightly behind with others, but it’s all going well so far.”

The work this week is part of a £67m project to lay 20 miles of new double track on the route between Oxford and Worcester to improve punctuality of trains on the line and increase capacity.

A further 16 miles of double track between Moreton-in-Marsh in Gloucestershire and Evesham in Worcestershire will be commissioned in August, with First Great Western launching a new timetable in September.

During this week’s closure of the line between Oxford and Kingham, buses are serving stations in west Oxfordshire and providing connections with trains running between Kingham and Worcester. For more information, call 08457 484950 or see the First Great Western website.