** The Brexit Thread ** - 'Brexit Means Brexit'

[Flinders]

The only sensible way to drive to Oxford is to use park and ride anyway- and that's on Sundays; and there is so much traffic on the approach roads from the North (I don't know about the South) that even getting to the park and ride on a Sunday is a nightmare. The rest of the week I wouldn't even try, it would be the train or go elsewhere. The fact that I have been there about twice in the last ten years suggests 'elsewhere' tends to win.......

[bovlomov]

The only sensible way to drive to Oxford is to use park and ride anyway- and that's on Sundays; and there is so much traffic on the approach roads from the North (I don't know about the South) that even getting to the park and ride on a Sunday is a nightmare.

Can the anti-Brexit bus not be used to transport the park-and-riders?

[mjr]

The only sensible way to drive to Oxford is to use park and ride anyway- and that's on Sundays; and there is so much traffic on the approach roads from the North (I don't know about the South) that even getting to the park and ride on a Sunday is a nightmare. The rest of the week I wouldn't even try, it would be the train or go elsewhere. The fact that I have been there about twice in the last ten years suggests 'elsewhere' tends to win.......

Unless it's gotten a lot worse since I last used it a few years ago and my family still in that area have just forgotten to mention it, then I think that's exaggerating somewhat. It's often slow getting to the two northern park and rides (Water Eaton aka Parkway or Pear Tree) and sometimes very slow, which is probably mostly because the A34 is doing double-duty as Oxford's real ring road and a main N-S quasi-motorway, but anyone calling that a "nightmare" needs to go visit a place with real congestion.

Elsewhere? If you're to the north, what comparable is elsewhere? Birmingham? Worcester? That's losing a lot of time on the journey to save a bit of time parking.

Oxford could do better on integrating transport, especially in more park+rail, park+pedal and rail+bike (it's hourly-ish service from Radley or Charlbury, but less than that from Heyford and hardly any parking at Hanborough or Tackley), but it doesn't seem so bad compared to many places.

Edit: sorry, I failed to notice this was the Brexit topic rather than one of the frequent "my car is the only practical transport and any place that denies me is doomed" discussions.

[661-Pete]

Edit: sorry, I failed to notice this was the Brexit topic rather than one of the frequent "my car is the only practical transport and any place that denies me is doomed" discussions.

The two are heavily intertwined.

[Flinders]

The only sensible way to drive to Oxford is to use park and ride anyway- and that's on Sundays; and there is so much traffic on the approach roads from the North (I don't know about the South) that even getting to the park and ride on a Sunday is a nightmare. The rest of the week I wouldn't even try, it would be the train or go elsewhere. The fact that I have been there about twice in the last ten years suggests 'elsewhere' tends to win.......

Unless it's gotten a lot worse since I last used it a few years ago and my family still in that area have just forgotten to mention it, then I think that's exaggerating somewhat. It's often slow getting to the two northern park and rides (Water Eaton aka Parkway or Pear Tree) and sometimes very slow, which is probably mostly because the A34 is doing double-duty as Oxford's real ring road and a main N-S quasi-motorway, but anyone calling that a "nightmare" needs to go visit a place with real congestion.

Elsewhere? If you're to the north, what comparable is elsewhere? Birmingham? Worcester? That's losing a lot of time on the journey to save a bit of time parking.

Oxford could do better on integrating transport, especially in more park+rail, park+pedal and rail+bike (it's hourly-ish service from Radley or Charlbury, but less than that from Heyford and hardly any parking at Hanborough or Tackley), but it doesn't seem so bad compared to many places.

Edit: sorry, I failed to notice this was the Brexit topic rather than one of the frequent "my car is the only practical transport and any place that denies me is doomed" discussions.

I have fewer problems using Park and Ride in Cambridge, as one comparable example. I find Oxford approaches to be congested even on Sundays, whereas Cambridge is fine at weekends, even Saturdays, at least, in my experience of the A14, and not too bad outside actual rush hour on weekdays generally. Weekdays of course the approaches seem congested ion the morning rush hour (weekdays I only pass by for the most part on my way to points further on the A14).
I have been known to drive within Cambridge when necessary, but would not consider driving into Oxford.
I cycle when I can, and take public transport when I can, but some of us do actually have to transport things for work that won't go on a bike or on public transport, so be careful who you label with facile stuff like this: "my car is the only practical transport and any place that denies me is doomed" .
When it comes to congestion, I have more experience than most, having spent 7 years commuting in London (mostly by bike) and lived and worked in many cities including Edinburgh and a fair range of English cities....Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, etc.....
To be fair, Edinburgh has been a nightmare to drive into for the last few years too- it may be better now if they have finished the tram work.

[Cyril Haearn]

I used to know Oxford and Cambridge well

Oxford was an industrial place with a big vehicle factory

Cambridge was a smaller town, much quiter with a big cattle market

What has changed, what has stayed the same in the last 35 years? This is much more interesting than b... x. t

[PDQ Mobile]

I used to know Oxford and Cambridge well

Oxford was an industrial place with a big vehicle factory

Cambridge was a smaller town, much quiter with a big cattle market

What has changed, what has stayed the same in the last 35 years? This is much more interesting than b... x. t

Oxford voted Remain and while you may think Cambridge was a quiter it also voted overwhelmingly Remain.
Both towns enjoy a punt.
Both towns have some good beer.
Oxford is more than a car factory and is the more beautiful of the two.
Oxford has the bigger river.
Cambridge is, I think, more than a load of old bull.

[Cyril Haearn]

Cambridge has a queer train station with one long platform, like Gloucester
Oxford has a 'normal' train station and a prison and is twinned with Bonn the former capital of Germany!

[mjr]

Cambridge has a queer train station with one long platform, like Gloucester
Oxford has a 'normal' train station and a prison and is twinned with Bonn the former capital of Germany!

Cambridge actually has two train stations now (as does Oxford) and the older one has recently gained a more conventional island platform (7+8) as well as the unusual double-length platform 1+4 and all the bays (2,3,5,6).

Oxford still only has a piddling 4 platforms and number 1 is rarely used.

Colchester's strange branch+main line double platform is actually longer than those at either Cambridge or Gloucester.

[661-Pete]

I see we're now in 'anorak' territory - excellent!

Oxford still only has a piddling 4 platforms and number 1 is rarely used.

I'm surprised that 4 platforms is 'piddling'. Most stations around the country manage with only two. As it happens, I used to use Oxford station rather a lot in the 1960s (when I was a student there ) and was convinced it had just two platforms, which I thought was an unusually simple layout for such an important place (well, I thought it was important!) Maybe the extra two have been added more recently.

Meanwhile, some more bucolic stations in our neck of the woods have been reducing their platforms, not adding to them. Brighton used to have ten, now it's eight. And Lewes used to have eight platforms in a rather odd layout (one of them you could board a train from either side) - now it's reduced to five. The Beeching axe is mostly to blame for that. On the other hand, Gatwick Airport recently added an extra platform, bringing the total to seven - one more than East Croydon, that infernal bottleneck on the Southern region and urgently in need of more space. There are plans to increase the platforms to eight, which should ease things a bit for long-suffering commuters - but it's going to be quite an enterprise, since the areas to either side of the existing station are heavily built on.

Drifting back to the Br****t theme loosely, I get the feeling mainland Europe's stations are built more future-proof than the UK's. For example there's Paris's Gare Du Nord with 36 (repeat: thirty-six) platforms.

[Psamathe]

I see that apparently there is no difference between an international border and the boundary between two London boroughs - at least according to our Foreign Secretary.

Should we be concerned if such a senior Minister can't see any difference between international borders and boundaries between two London boroughs?

Ian

[reohn2]

Should we be concerned if such a senior Minister can't see any difference between international borders and boundaries between two London boroughs?

Ian

Very

[Cyril Haearn]

Oxford, if one stays on the train the next stop was Charlbury but only the first couple of carriages were beside the very short platform
A bit later the train does not stop at the poetically famous Adlestrop

Philip Larkin wrote about rail travel and CYCLING!

Going up England by a different line..

Swerving east, from rich industrial shadows..

Once I am sure there is nothing going on.. (Church going, by cycle)

[mjr]

Drifting back to the Br****t theme loosely, I get the feeling mainland Europe's stations are built more future-proof than the UK's. For example there's Paris's Gare Du Nord with 36 (repeat: thirty-six) platforms.

That's a trick of numbering IIRC, counting some of the Metro and RER platforms, ignoring a gap in the numbers in the 20s, but counting some not currently in passenger service. If you apply the same methods to Waterloo, you end up with the same number of platforms and a similar number of "grand lines" users. There should be some sort of European harmonisation of these things!

[Cyril Haearn]

Fortunately French trains run on the left