On Fri, 28 Jan 2011 06:18:39 -0800 (PST)
George wrote:
Well I was at Marble Arch around 18.00 the other day and most Oxford
Tubes heading out of town did look rather full, perhaps they were all
just very well dressed mature students on board? Likewise there are a
lot of 'mature students' commuting into Central London by coach from
North Kent, these services have the added bonus of serving Canary
Wharf en route.

Well there is a recession on. Needs must and so on...

Personally I'd have to be almost broke to commute on a long distance bus in
the rush hour into london.

B2003

I currently live in NW London and have a job offer in Oxford. The job
would be better and I'm thinking I'd prefer the lifestyle over there. I
don't think I could hack the commute out to Oxford everyday, as it's not
like I live near Paddington anyway.

The bf has said he's happy to commute from Oxford (providing we live nr
the station) to the City everyday, but I'm not sure he's thought it
through!

Has anyone experience of this and how tiring/horrific it actually might
be??

While I most of the advantages/disadvantages have been laid out, and I've
no personal experience of the commute from Oxford to London, I *can* say
that I spent a good few years living in zone 2, and commuting out into
darkest Hertfordshire on a daily basis, and I greatly enjoyed travelling
on a completely empty train in both directions, able to stretch out in a
silent carriage, able to read a broadsheet paper, and drink my coffee
with almost no disturbance.

Also, travelling against the flow sometimes has the advantage of getting
better deals in terms of your season ticket - WAGN used to offer a 'flexi-
time' ticket, which meant you couldn't use it heading towards London
before 9:30 in the morning - so I saved quite a sizeable amount on a
regular season ticket.

So don't necessarily rule out trying to find a way to live in London and
work in Oxford - I'm guessing from your username that you're 25/26 years
old, and surely living in London at that age is likely to be MILES more
fun than living and working in Oxford?

As for your boyfriend and him travelling into London, I have a mate who
did the Oxford to Victoria 'tube' journey, and swore by it - though he
was able to doze on the coach.

On Wed, 26 Jan 2011, Manoonga85 wrote:

I currently live in NW London and have a job offer in Oxford. The job
would be better and I'm thinking I'd prefer the lifestyle over there. I
don't think I could hack the commute out to Oxford everyday, as it's not
like I live near Paddington anyway.

If you can get to Hillingdon, there are a couple of coach lines that call
there on their way from London to Oxford - the Oxford Tube and the Oxford
Espresso or something daft like that (used to be called the X90). When i
worked in Oxford (in Headington, specifically), i had a colleague who
commuted from London that way. Struck me as potty, but she did it.

The bf has said he's happy to commute from Oxford (providing we live nr
the station) to the City everyday, but I'm not sure he's thought it
through!

I commuted from Colchester to the South Bank for a while, and that was
fairly horrible. Oxford to the City, via Paddington, would be rather
worse, i think.

I suppose he could do the above route in reverse - coach to Headington,
Metropolitan line to work. That would probably take longer than
train/tube, but it might be less stressful. It should be substantially
cheaper.

Can you put the move off until after Crossrail is finished?

tom

--
megaptera novae angliae, soundwork chris draper, push, pull, open, ..

On 26/01/11 16:56, Theo Markettos wrote:
In uk.transport.london Mizter T wrote:
I'm going to take the liberty of crossposting this to the uk.railway
newsgroup - I'm not sure if that's a sensible move or not on my part, but
it just might be a way of getting a bit more of an input with regards to
the Oxford-Paddington element.

It might also be worth pointing out that there's another route to Oxford
currently at the planning permission stage, using the line to Bicester then
a new junction joining the Chiltern line to Marylebone:
http://www.chiltern-evergreen3.co.uk/

I don't know the latest timescales on the project, but it's probably a few
years off opening.

It's meant to be opening at the end of 2013, and in the past Chiltern
have had a good record for finishing projects on time.

It's worth noting that many people who live near Oxford drive to
Bicester North and catch the train to Marylebone from there. These
trains should be getting 10 minutes faster from May.

Roger

"Roger Lynn" wrote in message
...
On 26/01/11 16:56, Theo Markettos wrote:
It might also be worth pointing out that there's another route to Oxford
currently at the planning permission stage, using the line to Bicester
then
a new junction joining the Chiltern line to Marylebone:
http://www.chiltern-evergreen3.co.uk/

I don't know the latest timescales on the project, but it's probably a
few
years off opening.

It's meant to be opening at the end of 2013, and in the past Chiltern
have had a good record for finishing projects on time.

It's worth noting that many people who live near Oxford drive to
Bicester North and catch the train to Marylebone from there. These
trains should be getting 10 minutes faster from May.

When the Bicester curve opens, how will the journey time from Oxford to
Marylebone compare with that from Oxford to Paddington via Didcot? How do
the distances compare, too?

I wonder what the effect will be on the existing Birmingham-Marylebone
service and other services that start closer to London? Does the line have
spare capacity for extra trains from Oxford, or will existing services have
fewer trains to accomodate the Oxford ones?

"Mortimer" wrote in message
.. .
"Roger Lynn" wrote in message
...
On 26/01/11 16:56, Theo Markettos wrote:
It might also be worth pointing out that there's another route to Oxford
currently at the planning permission stage, using the line to Bicester
then
a new junction joining the Chiltern line to Marylebone:
http://www.chiltern-evergreen3.co.uk/

I don't know the latest timescales on the project, but it's probably a
few
years off opening.

It's meant to be opening at the end of 2013, and in the past Chiltern
have had a good record for finishing projects on time.

It's worth noting that many people who live near Oxford drive to
Bicester North and catch the train to Marylebone from there. These
trains should be getting 10 minutes faster from May.

When the Bicester curve opens, how will the journey time from Oxford to
Marylebone compare with that from Oxford to Paddington via Didcot? How do
the distances compare, too?

The Chiltern route is expected to be 1h 6m, vs about 58/59m from Oxford to
Paddington. Haven't got the distances.

But the time from Water Eaton Parkway, is proposed to be the same 58m, which
they expect to be useful for many people from north of Oxford currently
driving to Oxford station's car park.

Paul S

In article ,
(Mortimer) wrote:

When the Bicester curve opens, how will the journey time from
Oxford to Marylebone compare with that from Oxford to Paddington
via Didcot? How do the distances compare, too?

Competitive from North of Oxford (Islip?), slightly slower from Oxford
itself. So most attractive for Park and Ride from North Oxford and
environs.

I wonder what the effect will be on the existing
Birmingham-Marylebone service and other services that start closer
to London? Does the line have spare capacity for extra trains from
Oxford, or will existing services have fewer trains to accomodate
the Oxford ones?

I thought they had done some work to enhance capacity? This was the GW
Birmingham main line after all.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

"Paul Scott" wrote:
"Mortimer" wrote in message
When the Bicester curve opens, how will the journey time from Oxford to
Marylebone compare with that from Oxford to Paddington via Didcot? How do
the distances compare, too?

The Chiltern route is expected to be 1h 6m, vs about 58/59m from Oxford to
Paddington. Haven't got the distances.

But the time from Water Eaton Parkway, is proposed to be the same 58m, which
they expect to be useful for many people from north of Oxford currently
driving to Oxford station's car park.


Within a few short years of the opening of the Chiltern route's Oxford
branch, the Paddington route will offer an interchange with Crossrail
(or perhaps even direct trains via Crossrail) against Chiltern's
interchange with the Bakerloo at Marylebone and with the Circle and
Metropolitan Lines at Baker Street.

I have a feeling that this will make the Paddington route
significantly more attractive than it is now.

On Feb 3, 12:01*pm, Bruce wrote:
"Paul Scott" wrote:
"Mortimer" wrote in message
When the Bicester curve opens, how will the journey time from Oxford to
Marylebone compare with that from Oxford to Paddington via Didcot? How do
the distances compare, too?

The Chiltern route is expected to be 1h 6m, *vs about 58/59m from Oxford to
Paddington. *Haven't got the distances.

Trains from Oxford to Paddington are only 58/59 minutes in the daytime
weekdays; evening and weekend services are markedly slower [not
relevant to Mon-Fri commuters, but significant to Oxonians who want to
visit London at the weekend]. Sunday "fasts" take 68/69 minutes, only
run hourly, and the first up train is scheduled to leave Oxford at
0950, arriving Paddington at 1058. Engineering works often mean you
don't get to London before lunchtime.

Chiltern won't be able to run long trains from Oxford -- I think their
platform will be 5 cars max -- but they will get a fair load of
commuters from the Park'n'ride on weekdays, and have potential to get
a lot of weekend leisure passngers who have long been disenchanted
with FGW's poor schedules and ageing turbos.

wrote in message
...
In article ,
(Mortimer) wrote:
I wonder what the effect will be on the existing
Birmingham-Marylebone service and other services that start closer
to London? Does the line have spare capacity for extra trains from
Oxford, or will existing services have fewer trains to accomodate
the Oxford ones?

I thought they had done some work to enhance capacity? This was the GW
Birmingham main line after all.

The capacity gain seems to be mostly from additional loops at Princes
Risborough and Northholt Jn, and then by running Class 172s on local
stoppers as far as Gerrrards Cross, allowing them to be avoid conflicts with
faster trains, and AIUI there is also some alteration to service patterns
with fewer trains terminating at Bicester North or Banbury.

In any case, the originally proposed timetables including the Oxford service
are all online for comparison, :

http://tinyurl.com/6jvr6zt

http://preview.tinyurl.com/6jvr6zt

Paul S