Cherwell Valley line

The Cherwell Valley line is the railway line between Didcot and Banbury via Oxford. It links the Great Western Main Line and the south to the Chiltern Main Line and the Midlands. The line follows the River Cherwell for much of its route between Banbury and Oxford.

Cherwell Valley line
Appleford railway station in 2009
Overview
Status	Operational
Owner	Network Rail
Locale	Oxfordshire, South East England
Stations	7
Service
Type	Heavy rail
System	National Rail
Operator(s)	CrossCountry Great Western Railway
Rolling stock	Class 165 "Networker Turbo" Class 220 "Voyager" Class 221 "Super Voyager" Class 800 "Intercity Express Train" Class 802 "Intercity Express Train"
Technical
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Operating speed	110 mph (177 km/h) maximum
Route map (Click to expand)

Cherwell Valley line
Chiltern Main Line to Leamington Spa 34⅓ Banbury Verney Junction branch M40 motorway 30½ Kings Sutton Banbury and Cheltenham Direct Railway M40 motorway 29⅓ Aynho Junction Chiltern Main Line to Bicester North Aynho Fritwell & Somerton Oxford Canal 23⅛ Heyford 19½ Tackley Bletchington Shipton cement works Blenheim and Woodstock branch line Kidlington Oxford Canal Buckinghamshire Jn Rly Cotswold Line to Worcester 13¼ Duke's Cut A34 Oxford Western Bypass (Wolvercote Viaduct) Wolvercot Platform Oxford–Bicester line 11⅜ Oxford North Junction Sheepwash Channel 10⅜ Oxford gas works Osney Rail Bridge over River Thames Oxford (Grandpont) Hinksey Halt Millstream Junction Abingdon Road Halt A423 Oxford Southern Bypass 8⅓ Kennington Junction Mini factory Wycombe Railway 5¼ Radley Abingdon Junction Abingdon Junction Abingdon Railway Nuneham Viaduct over River Thames Culham Cutting 3⅓ Culham Appleford Railway Bridge over River Thames 2⅓ Appleford Gravel pits ⅞ Didcot North Junction Didcot Railway Centre 0⅓ Didcot Parkway Great Western Main Line to Swindon | to Reading

Current and former stations served

• Banbury, formerly called Banbury Bridge Street
• Kings Sutton
• Former station at Aynho for Deddington
• Former station at Fritwell & Somerton
• Heyford, formerly called Lower Heyford
• Tackley
• Former station for Bletchington, previously called Kirtlington
• Former station at Kidlington previously called Woodstock Road
• Former halt at Wolvercot Platform
• Oxford
• Former halt at Hinksey
• Former halt at Abingdon Road
• Radley
• Former station at Abingdon Junction
• Culham, formerly called Abingdon Road
• Appleford
• Didcot Parkway, formerly called Didcot

The former station for Bletchingdon was always spelt "Bletchington", which is an alternative spelling for that village's toponym. The former halt at Wolvercote was called "Wolvercot Platform", with a deliberately different spelling of the village's name, to distinguish it from the London and North Western Railway's nearby Wolvercote Halt.

The line has a maximum speed of 110 mph (177 km/h).

Services

Passenger services are provided by CrossCountry and Great Western Railway. CrossCountry call only at Oxford and Banbury on their services south to Southampton and north to Birmingham New Street and beyond, while Great Western Railway operate both local and express services on the line, with express services typically continuing onto the Cotswold Line towards Worcester Foregate Street and Hereford, or the Great Western main line towards London Paddington.

The line carries a large and increasing volume of freight between the Port of Southampton and the Midlands, much of it container trains operated by Freightliner.

Tilting

With the exception of the West Coast Main Line, this route was the only route on which domestic UK trains could tilt, something of which Virgin CrossCountry took advantage, using Class 221 Super Voyagers from 2004. After Virgin CrossCountry's successor CrossCountry elected to remove the tilting equipment from its Class 221s to increase reliability and reduce costs, tilt running ceased in 2008.

River Thames

The line makes three crossings of the River Thames between Oxford and Didcot:

• Osney Rail Bridge
• Nuneham Railway Bridge
• Appleford Railway Bridge

Electrification

See also: Proposed railway electrification in Great Britain

In 1977 the Parliamentary Select Committee on Nationalised Industries recommended considering electrification of more of Britain's rail network, and by 1979 BR presented a range of options to do so by 2000. Some of these options would have included the whole Cherwell Valley line and the Banbury–Birmingham section of what is now the Chiltern Main Line plus the Coventry to Leamington line. The 1979–90 Conservative governments that succeeded the 1976–79 Labour government did not implement the proposal.

Under plans for the Great Western Electrification project announced in July 2009, the Cherwell Valley line was due to be electrified from Didcot as far as Oxford. However, delays and cost overruns elsewhere caused this to be deferred indefinitely in 2016.