Local campaigners have marched through the centre of Bicester to campaign against Bicester town centre being divided into two by a new rail line and for a new vehicle-free underpass.
The East-West Rail line (EWR) is due to become partly operational later this month and will eventually connect the cities of Oxford and Cambridge. However, the line will cut through the town centre, and the present level crossing will be closed.
Previously, both the Department for Transport and EWR had proposed a pedestrian footbridge over the railway line, a suggestion that was widely criticised by residents and the local MP. At the time, more than 4,500 people signed a petition calling for vehicle access across the line to be maintained.
More recently, more than 100 local businesses signed a letter demanding that an underpass be built to provide access to vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists. A march was also held through the town centre calling for the town to not be split into two.
But whilst the local MP and many businesses support vehicular access through a single-lane ‘shuttle system’, the Bicester Bicycle Users Group (BBUG) is calling for the underpass to be made vehicle free. They’ve also produced designs of what their proposal would look like, with parking spaces and bus stops planned on either side.
“We were really pleased by the attendance for the march,” BBUG chairman Paul Troup told road.cc. “Everyone realises the underpass is the only way[..] it would be ludicrous to consider connecting the two halves of town with a tiny, inaccessible, narrow footbridge.
“But there’s definitely a split. The biggest worry is the [Department for Transport] see people want a car underpass, but they don’t see the justification when the [town] centre is being pedestrianised so you’re left with a footbridge, and our point of view is squeezed out.
“We’re very worried frankly because an underpass has been costed quite high. Infrastructure costs are laughably high, whereas a pedestrian bridge would be quite cheap even if it’s unusable.”
Troup also said their shared proposals had been warmly received but that question marks remained over their feasibility. He added their points had been made to EWR in several meetings but that “it’s difficult to know how much progress we’re making when the talks haven’t been very substantive.”
A decision by the Treasury and the Department for Transport is expected in the next week, ahead of the Budget on the 26th November. A government spokesperson previously told the BBC it was considering “options for the future of the London Road level crossing, balancing costs with any impacts on the community”.
11 thoughts on ““It’s so important, but our view is being squeezed out of the debate”: Bike campaigners call for proposed new underpass to be vehicle-free”
Shame they didn’t protest
Shame they didn’t protest about their little town being turned into a giant shopping mall
Meanwhile in the Netherlands,
Meanwhile in the Netherlands, even where “our streets are narrow” also and “digging is very expensive, ‘tunnels’ rather than underpasses are much more expensive” the same as here … they find a way:
… but of course that wouldn’t work here because we have a densely populated country, and we have cars, or because it’s flat there, or because of their “socialist” government, or clogs…
What the underpass will
What the underpass will actually end up looking like.
Hey ChatGPT, that’s a good
Hey ChatGPT, that’s a good start, but add some broken glass, remove the lighting in the underpass, and make the undergrowth into… well, overgrowth.
More.
MORE.
Nailed it.
It’s not a “new rail line”,
It’s not a “new rail line”, it’s been there since Victorian times. I would have thought that a narrower underpass would be cheaper to construct than a full width road underpass, so easier to secure funding?
Depends what you mean by a
Depends what you mean by a ‘line’. It’s an existing route, but a complete replacement (and doubling) of the tracks.
My point is that the headline
My point is that the headline is misleadingly worded. Anyone without local knowledge reading the article will think this was a newly constructed railway line that didn’t exist before, when the opposite is true. The upgrade to double track is merely a return to the original layout.
The overall point is, this isn’t a new obstacle to cyclists that has suddenly appeared. It is however, a line that will soon have a lot more traffic on it. That is, if agreement on the snagging points can be reached between the DfT, Chiltern (the intended operator) and the unions, not least regarding driver-only operation.
ant3 wrote:
Well that would serve them right for only reading the headline then. The article itself makes it pretty clear that there is an existing level crossing.
Even the hard of reading
Even the hard of reading wouldn’t have too much trouble given that the article is topped with a big picture of the level crossing complete with a train going across and protesters in front of it.
ant3 wrote:
Forgive me – as someone without local knowledge, I might have been misled. But surely the “new obstacle” to cyclists is not the track itself, but the proposal to remove the level crossing?
The biggest worry is the
The biggest worry is the [Department for Transport] see people want a car underpass, but they don’t see the justification when the [town] centre is being pedestrianised so you’re left with a footbridge, and our point of view is squeezed out
What the majority of the protesters want, as they always want, is ‘freedom’ to drive everywhere, followed by demands for wider roads, wider underpasses, facilities for fatter and fatter people etc., and not ridiculously arduous obstacles like footbridges which will cause heart attacks, and what about the disabled?? It is difficult for many of us to appreciate just how idle the majority of people are- there was a program on BBC radio last night about companies touting and actually operating drone delivery services (initially in dense urban areas, where the less idle could easily walk or cycle to obtain these apparently essential supplies). The operator (Dublin, Helsinki and somewhere in Florida) justified this Delivery for Sofa-Bound Slobs by saying that ‘otherwise people would just get in their cars to drive to the shops, spending time in traffic jams etc’.What people were ‘ordering’ was small grocery items such as a couple of onions etc.- they’re lowered from the drone into your garden, and the enthusiastic entrepeneur was very proud that they could safely deliver eggs. Active Travel?- Dead in the Water in the UK! Stick with it BBUG, and good luck.