What happened and why it matters
To make sense of what follows, you need to know that by quirk of geography, the western half of Oxford is joined to the rest of the city by a single road — Botley Road. If that road is closed, the city is cut in two — there is no other way through. The only alternative for vehicles is to go right out of the city and drive miles round the ring road.
Pedestrians face a 450 metre slog from the bus stops on the western side to the station and bus stops on the eastern side, through a crowded, narrow, poorly lit, badly maintained tunnel under the railway, known unfondly by locals as the Tunnel of Doom.
What has happened?
For at least the last seven years, Network Rail has been working on a project to expand the capacity of Oxford station.
In 2022, they added a proposal to widen and deepen Botley Road under the bridge, implying, wrongly, that buses to fit underneath had to be specially made, and that electric buses couldn't do so.
see HOW DID THIS PROJECT GO SO WRONG »
On 22 July 2022, Network Rail submitted its proposals to the city council and proudly (if ungrammatically) stated:
… the Botley Road bridge has been carefully considered to reduce the timeframe of disruption of the project to the highway network and has been able to reduce the closure of the road to just 4 days.′
That was the basis on which the city council gave approval to the project, at the meeting of the planning committee on 9 November 2022.
As time passed, ‘just 4 days’ became three months, then six months. Then Network Rail said the closure would start on 9 January 2023 and last for 12 months. Then that was cancelled, and when the road actually closed on 11 April 2023, Network Rail said it would stay closed for six months, April-October 2023, then re-open, and then close another six months April-October 2024. In September 2023 Network Rail said the road would not be reopened in October 2023, after all, but stay closed til October 2024. Then in July 2024 Network Rail announced the road would not reopen in October 2024, and that it had now no project plan or timetable, as that the whole project was being reviewed.
At the time of going to press, the Department of Transport is still reviewing the whole project and it is not known whether it will be cancelled, or curtailed, or when the road will reopen, or when the project will be completed, or what it will cost.
At this point the road has been closed for over 600 days. An overrun on time of 1500% — surely a record, even by Network Rail standards.
The cutting in two of our city has done immense damage to individuals and to businesses, which Network Rail and the Department of Transport have resolutely ignored, and on which the county and city councils have offered very little help.
When local people talk about the closure, they often say that the hardest thing to bear — apart from Network Rail’s extraordinary incompetence — is that no one, not Network Rail, nor Keir (Network Rail’s contractor), the Department of Transport or the city nor county councils, is listening to them, nor accepting any responsibility, but instead just point the finger at each other.
The purpose of this website is to give those who have suffered from this disastrous project a voice, allowing them to say what this horrible intrusion into their lives has meant for them.
The road had been closed for over 600 days. An overrun on time of 1500%.′
Who’s affected
Not everyone is equally affected by the closure. If you’re fit and mobile, and never have any need to drive into the rest of the city, and don’t run or work in a business in the western half (and also, you aren’t too fussed about what happens to neighbours who have different needs to yours), then the closure may not matter much. But there are broadly four categories of people who are seriously affected by the closure.
People with mobility problems
Many of those with no or limited mobility cannot manage the Tunnel of Doom. The narrow tunnel, and the walkways on either side, are at peak times extremely crowded with hurrying people, and made much more scary for those with mobility problems by people pushing — and sometimes riding — bikes, motorbikes, cargo bikes and e-scooters through the crowd. It does not help that the surface is very uneven. There is also a problem when coming out of the city, as the bus stops for services going west lack seating and shelter, and are often so crowded that pedestrians are forced to walk in the road. Many cannot afford taxis into the centre, or to the hospitals on the other side of the city, as they must drive miles round the ring road.
A selection of statements by people affected in this way form the first section of this report. There were way too many to print them all.
Local businesses
Local businesses have been affected in various ways. Most obviously, by being suddenly cut off from all their customers in the rest of the city. And by difficulties in delivering into Oxford, since journeys previously measured in hundreds of metres have become miles around the ring road, adding to time and cost. Deliveries into businesses have also been affected. Businesses also fear permanent loss of custom, as customers turn elsewhere. Business people also bitterly complain that Network Rail's repeated last minute changes to plan have constantly thwarted their efforts to mitigate the effects of the closure.
Of course, with businesses there’s seldom just one challenge, and it’s a difficult time for retail. But whenever asked, owners have said it was quite clear, the drop in business started the day the road closed, and has been catastrophic.
Neither Network Rail nor the city or county councils have shown any interest in trying to quantify the economic damage that is being done. However, looking at the figures for reduction in business given by some businesses, I estimate that the economic loss due to the closure to date is likely in the order of £15 ‒ 25 million, plus over 100 jobs.
Statements by business owners form the second part of this report. (National chains were reluctant to speak on record, but some talked off record).
Then there are two other groups who have been affected — but may not know it.
The wider city
One is businesses and people in the rest of Oxford. Botley Road is the only way into the city from the west, unless you go miles around the ring road and enter from the north or south. The closure of one major arterial route has increased pressure on the others, particularly since at the same time, there have been months of very long delays on the ring road, due to work on the Botley interchange (a feature of this saga has been the contribution by other incompetents – National Highways, Thames Water, British Gas). On top of this, as the managing director of the Oxford Bus Company explains below, the introduction of ‘local traffic networks’ (LTNs) in east Oxford has pushed traffic off minor roads onto the main arterial roads, thus increasing congestion.
The county council intended to deal with this by introducing ‘traffic filters’ to prevent private cars entering the city centre, which they hoped would divert car users onto buses, bikes or foot. Whether this would have worked remains a moot point, because it has been impossible to introduce traffic filters as long as Botley Road is closed. Thus the LTNs have become another source of increased congestion. The director of the Oxford Bus Company says in his statement that journey times have increased on one route by 50%.
The combined effect of all these pressures must have significantly reduced numbers coming into Oxford, to shop or for entertainment or for business, below what they would otherwise have been.
I’m not able to quantify this loss to the city as a whole, and the city council shows no interest in doing so. But for sure, it is real and significant.
To this must be added increased subsidies paid by the county council to bus companies to offset losses due to the Botley Road closure, currently at least £150k a year — so less money for other hard-pressed services. Or for compensating small businesses.
Tax payer
Finally, there is one other person affected but who doesn’t know it — the taxpayer. The original budget for the project, mostly funded by the Department of Transport, was £161 million. Of that, just £13 million was allocated for highway work when it was thought the road closure would be a few months at most. Network Rail have already spent over £120 million and yet, ironically, the work on the station itself has barely begun (though the entire project was due to be finished by now!). This includes: lowering ground on the western side, then relaying the existing access road, demolishing the western part of the station structure, laying a new track and building a new platform, constructing pedestrian access tunnels under the whole station, building a new ticket office and office complex on the west side, together with a cafe, not to mention replacing two entire rail bridges, one to the north and one to the south of the station. It is a reasonable guess that completing the entire project would involve an overspend of well over £100 million.
This report focuses on giving local people who’ve been badly affected by the closure a chance say their piece and to have it put before those in power.′
What needs to be done?
When asked, people say:
Re-open the road — soon!
Not next year, or next autumn, but soon. But any plan must be credible — no one believes now anything said by Network Rail. A new plan must be guaranteed by Ministers, who must be personally, publicly accountable for delivering it.
Compensate vIctIms
Family business are being ruined, families are suffering. They can’t hold on much longer. They should not pay for Network Rails endless incompetence. Government did this, Government should compensate them. It’d cost a tiny fraction of the project’s £100+ million overspend.
Immediate practIcal help
So much could and should have been done to help people out during the closure. Both Network Rail and the county council spent 18 months thinking up reasons for inaction. Only now are they slowly beginning to acknowledge their neglect. What about seating and shelter at bus stops, widening the pavement, resurfacing the Tunnel of Doom, safe access for the disabled, enforcement of prohibition on dangerous drop off and pickups, more buses from West Oxford to the centre and to hospitals?
An independent inquiry
An independent inquiry is needed not just because of the damage done to us, and the vast overspend, but because the Government propose a huge expansion of Network Rail’s responsibilities. Yet Oxford is just the latest in a history of massive Network Rail project failures. We need to understand what is so wrong with it, and put it right.