| 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 | ||
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TheCherwell Valley line is the railway line betweenDidcot andBanbury viaOxford. It links theGreat Western Main Line and the south to theChiltern Main Line and theMidlands. The line follows theRiver Cherwell for much of its route between Banbury and Oxford.
The former station for Bletchingdon was always spelt "Bletchington", which is an alternative spelling for that village'stoponym. The former halt atWolvercote was called "Wolvercot Platform", with a deliberately different spelling of the village's name, to distinguish it from theLondon and North Western Railway's nearbyWolvercote Halt.
The line has a maximum speed of 110 mph (177 km/h).[1]
Passenger services are provided byCrossCountry andGreat Western Railway. CrossCountry call only atOxford andBanbury on their services south toSouthampton and north toBirmingham New Street and beyond, while Great Western Railway operate both local and express services on the line, with express services typically continuing onto theCotswold Line towardsWorcester Foregate Street andHereford, or theGreat Western main line towardsLondon Paddington.
The line carries a large and increasing volume offreight between thePort of Southampton and theMidlands, much of itcontainer trains operated byFreightliner.
With the exception of theWest Coast Main Line, this route was the only route on which domestic UK trains could tilt, something of whichVirgin CrossCountry took advantage, usingClass 221Super Voyagers from 2004.[2] After Virgin CrossCountry's successorCrossCountry elected to remove the tilting equipment from its Class 221s to increase reliability and reduce costs, tilt running ceased in 2008.[3]
The line makes three crossings of theRiver Thames between Oxford and Didcot:
In 1977 the Parliamentary Select Committee on Nationalised Industries recommended consideringelectrification of more of Britain's rail network, and by 1979 BR presented a range of options to do so by 2000.[4] Some of these options would have included the whole Cherwell Valley line and the Banbury–Birmingham section of what is now theChiltern Main Line plus theCoventry to Leamington line.[4] The1979–90 Conservative governments that succeeded the1976–79 Labour government did not implement the proposal.
Under plans for theGreat Western Electrification project announced in July 2009, the Cherwell Valley line was due to be electrified from Didcot as far as Oxford.[5] However, delays and cost overruns elsewhere caused this to be deferred indefinitely in 2016.[6]
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