Western Section's first phase wins top industry award
Bicester to Oxford Collaboration was named winner of the Cross Industry Partnership Award for the delivery of Chiltern Railway’s Oxford to London service at the Rail Industry Innovation Awards.
The collaboration consists of Chiltern Railways, Network Rail, Carillion Buckingham Joint Venture, Atkins, Siemens and RSK.
Rob Mole, East West Rail project manager at Network Rail, said there was a ‘strong sense of trust and integrity’ which ‘encouraged a one team mentality’.
He added: “The Oxford to London project and East West Rail Phase One were achieved by combining technical design excellence and digital engineering with collaboration between client, designer and contractor.” East West Rail Phase One was commissioned to improve a 16km section between Oxford and Bicester, transforming it from a single track branch line to a modern 100mph twin-track railway.
The completed line was officially opened by Secretary of State Chris Grayling in December 2016.
Results in the first six months to June 2017 show that the line is encouraging residents to travel by rail.
Since the Oxford to Marylebone route opened in December 2016, the rail market between Oxford station and London has grown by an impressive 18%.
Chiltern’s passenger numbers between Oxford Parkway, Bicester Village station and London are also continuing to grow. Just over 18 months after launch, three million journeys have been made on the new line with over a million passengers travelling through Oxford Parkway.
Bicester Village station, the gateway to one of the UK’s most popular destinations for overseas visitors, has seen two million passengers make journeys through the station. The number of overall visitors arriving by train at the shopping destination has soared from 3% to more than 10% since the opening of the new route.
Sarah-Jane Curtis, Business Director of Bicester Village, said: “Working in partnership with Chiltern means that we can continue to enhance the overall experience for our guests whilst reducing traffic on local roads. With one in ten travelling by train, this is now the preferred option for many of the visitors to Bicester Village.”
Six months on press release in full