Railway between Didcot Parkway and Oxford to remain closed until after Easter

The railway between Didcot Parkway and Oxford will be closed until after the Easter period as Network Rail continues its assessment of Nuneham viaduct.

Due to safety concerns, the line has been closed as monitoring equipment found increased and significant movements of the viaduct despite work completed by Network Rail recently. The Oxfordshire viaduct spans the River Thames between Culham and Radley

Comprehensive inspections of the bridge are currently being carried out which will mean that the railway will be closed until the latter part of April.

In order to keep passengers on the move, Great Western Railway, CrossCountry, Chiltern Railways and Network Rail are working together in order to bring a revised timetable which will run throughout the line closure alongside the provision of local shuttle services.

• Passengers travelling between London Paddington and Oxford/North Cotswolds will now need to change at Didcot Parkway for rail replacement bus services which will increase journey times by around 40 minutes.
• Passengers travelling between the midlands and the south coast will now need to use rail replacement bus services between Oxford and Didcot Parkway
• Shuttle train services will operate between Didcot and Appleford and Culham and also between Radley and Oxford.
• Between Hereford/Worcestershire and Oxford, train services will operate mostly as planned

For CrossCountry services:

• The train operator is running a full service north of Oxford other than the 5.15am Southampton to Manchester service which begins at Banbury and also the 8.25pm Manchester to Reading service which terminates at Birmingham
• Limited CrossCountry services are operating between the south coast and Didcot Parkway with rail replacement services operating between Didcot Parkway and Oxford.

For Great Western Railway services:

• Great Western Railway services Between London, Oxford and the North Cotswolds are affected with services terminating at Oxford, including the Didcot Parkway and Oxford shuttle.
• Rail replacement services are running a fast service between Oxford and Didcot Parkway alongside a stopping service calling at Radley, Culham and Appleford. Passengers are advised that these services are expected to be extremely busy.

Tickets acceptance is available on:

• Avanti West Coast via any reasonable route.
• Chiltern Railways via any reasonable route.
• London Underground via any reasonable route.
• West Midlands Railway via any reasonable route.
• Stagecoach S6 bus services between Swindon and Oxford
• Thames Travel X2 and X32 bus services between Didcot and Oxford

David Davidson, Network Rail's interim Western route director, said:

“We are sorry for the disruption this has caused for passengers and advise them to continue to check before they travel.

“Safety is our top priority and our engineers our now working round the clock to identify what can be done to make this viaduct safe for passenger and freight trains to run again.

“We are disappointed that the work we've done so far hasn't been successful and our efforts haven't been helped by the wettest March in over 30 years. We will continue to provide updates as we work to reopen the line as quickly and as safely as possible.”