Rose Simms

Southmoor Village

I’ve lived the past four years in Southmoor village. The S6 had been a great bus service from the village into Gloucester Green [city centre] and back. We frequently visited Botley Road shops and the city centre. But with it stopping now opposite Osney Island, it has put us off going into Botley Road or Oxford itself. I have had two knee replacements over the past few years and an ankle operation and am unable to walk far. So to walk from Osney Island to city centre is sometimes not doable. Trying to get back is a nightmare! The queues at the bus stop at Osney Island spill all over the pavements, so dangerous, it makes me feel very unsafe. We now tend to go to Abingdon: although buses are not as frequent, they go right into the town. I have spoken to many other people who feel the same. I knew before the announcement that the road would never open in October! Now they are not even giving a date when it is opening! Absolutely fed up, like so many other people. 

Sheer incompetence! Someone should be made responsible for all this!

Mike Magee

Mill Street

Since the closure of the Botley Road I’ve had to change my GP, based in Jericho, because what was a £14 taxi fare there and back now costs £40. I have had to go to the John Radcliffe hospital several times over the last 15 or so months. That’s a round fare of about £50. I am disabled and don’t feel confident enough to navigate the pedestrian tunnel on the Botley Road without help. The noise of the construction has also affected me.

Note: Very sadly, Mike has died since he wrote this. He was a valiant fighter against the indifference of Network Rail and took them to the Small Claims Court for the costs of taxis to his GP and the hospital.

Zoe Mulcare

Osney Island

My biggest frustration is not being able to go to a gym that we had joined just before all this started. I just really need to swim and get fitter, but cycling hurts my knees and getting all the way to north Oxford is not easy for me. Consequently, I rarely go and my membership is largely wasted.

I feel depressed at the idea of walking into town, to be quite honest. So often the tunnel is crowded, or someone is cycling through the pedestrians. I feel cut off from the city that we especially bought our home to be close to the centre of. Hospital appointments have become much harder to get to. The Botley Flyer has been too infrequent to be useful. My daughter had gone out less, as we can’t pick her up easily when she’s out in town, and taxis are much too expensive to get round the ring road. Friends from Oxford and from outside visit less. 

It feels as though we are cut off from the city.
 

Name witheld by request

West Oxford

My husband and I have lived in West Oxford for the past 13 years. We are both very keen musicians (chamber music, choral singing etc). Our lives have been very badly affected by the difficulties of getting in and out of Oxford. I think I’m very typical of elderly women over here, many of whom no longer attempt to go into Oxford at all. 

I’m a woman of 80 with serious arthritic problems with knees and hips, also loss of sense of balance, so I need to use a rollator. I do not drive and need to use the rollator for stability, which causes me a lot of pain. Walking the extra distance under the tunnel is a real problem for me, with the uneven surface and the possibility of falling. Most people are very patient, but the 10% of cyclists who insist on riding through are a real danger.

Getting into the city is important for me as I used to do a lot of volunteering, which I’ve had to give up, and my husband and I used to go to college dinners and concerts in the city, but with the S1 service now re-routed via the north of Oxford, we now have a much poorer bus service in the evenings, particularly on Sundays, making concerts and theatre trips impossible. Doing such activities is important for all of us psychologically and we have had so many restrictions in the past few years.

I also used to shop happily in Witney with a through service from our road, but now the E1 service breaks at Eynsham, making it difficult for me to do it alone (also there is no bus shelter while waiting). I have sent several emails to Stagecoach but never a reply.  

My message is that we are all tired out, fed up and not seeing an end to this. The local authorities should be taking all this much more seriously and an inquiry into what has gone wrong is overdue.

Walking the extra distance under the tunnel is a real problem for me, with the uneven surface ... the 10% of cyclists who insist on riding through are a real danger.′

Name withheld by request

Botley Road

As a disabled person, my life has gone from being active and social to being virtually house-bound. My journey from work has increased in miles from 2 miles to 7 miles around the ring road. In time, it has increased exponentially. Driving in stop-start traffic, sometimes for hours, causes added pain and mobility issues. I had to negotiate working remotely with my employers, which has been extremely stressful.

My elderly parents who live in the city are not able to visit me any longer and I am only able to visit them at specific times when traffic is at its lowest. My mother had a fall in January and needed to be in hospital. My elderly father, who has memory issues, was alone for 3 weeks. As a result of the road closure I was not able to be there as often as I needed and we had to hire carers. 

In Spring 2023 I had to give up the opportunity to continue my studies on a qualifying postgraduate course at Oxford University as I was no longer able to access the course due to the road closure. This has had a profound impact on my career development and my income.

I have not been able to socialise or attend cultural events in the city and friends have to visit me at my home. The professional, financial, physical, emotional and social negative impact has been beyond measure.

Network Rail and Oxfordshire county council say they put in place mitigating measures for the disabled during the closure including an audiobook, to explain how to access the city, and a bus once a day on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 10.45am [recently increased to one each weekday]. To call this inadequate would be an understatement.

Our MP, Layla Moran, facilitated a meeting with Network Rail and Kier Transport, specifically about disabled access. I made a number of suggestions for improving access. No actions have come from it other than producing the Mitigations Report — it was shockingly inadequate. 

The professional, financial, physical, emotional and social negative impact has been beyond measure.′

Jennie Botham

Botley

The closure has had a big impact on me. I work in South Parks Road and live in Botley. My arthritis makes walking difficult. The walk from High Street is too much for me.

My commute takes twice as long, is double the length. I cannot use the bus to get into the city centre because I cannot walk through the tunnel. I don’t have a blue badge as I don’t qualify as I can walk a bit — but it causes a lot of pain.

Neil and Ruth Cameron

Botley

We are in our 80s. We retired to Botley in 2012 precisely because of its combination of self-sufficiency and convenient access to Oxford via seven bus lines. And now? Seven bus lines stop at Osney and the Rat Tunnel!

This has had a disastrous effect on our quality of life. It has become impossible to maintain many of the activities we enjoyed formerly, and rendered those we can continue difficult at best, making ‘pleasure’ unpleasant. 

One bus has become several, plus a bleak long walk. At our age, time is critical. We can ill afford to waste it. Here is a list of activities either curtailed or prevented:

• Neil: Shareholder in the Ultimate Picture Palace (Cowley); concerts; political meetings; lectures at e.g. Rewley House.
• Ruth: Lectures; book group; art classes.
• Both: Now it’s from hard to impossible to access the following which used to comprise our quality of life: GP Surgery in Beaumont St; JR & Churchill Hospitals; Railway Station; Gloucester Green Bus Station, especially when collecting foreign visitors unfamiliar with local transport; Gloucester Green Market; Botanical Garden; museums & galleries; Oxford Literary Festival; major shops; Oxford friends.

In addition to the violation of our lifestyle, we have suffered financially, as we’ve had to use taxis, which we never did in the past.

We feel that Network Rail have demonstrated utter contempt for all of us: local inhabitants, other users of the Botley Road, and our elected representatives. True, they have staged ‘consultations’, and issued frequent mealy-mouthed updates, but these fail to acknowledge their catastrophic planning and operational procedures.

WE ARE ABANDONED.

Jude Carroll

Osney Island

I’m a 75-year-old woman, living alone on Osney Island, with no car, a bus pass and a love of walking. I go through the tunnel most days and, on the face of it, might seem unlikely to be affected. But I am affected.

Plus side? — lower traffic levels, noticeably better air quality, and at last, something being done about a sore/eyesore in the Botley Road world.

The negatives

• The closure is just one of 4 major projects in close proximity. The impact is cumulative and I feel besieged.
• Bus stop arrangements mean too many people, too little space, too few seats, detrimental effect on the churchyard and at times, chaos. There is no thought about pavements as thoroughfares for us folk who live here. It’s awful.
• The tunnel is often intimidating and unpleasant. I have been shouted at, sworn at, passed too close by delivery bikes, halted by groups occupying the whole space. This happens regularly.
• I accompany a blind friend through the tunnel and to and from the rail station regularly. He is an independent cane-user, but has been made incompetent by lack of notice on changes, strange reconfigurations in station access and more. His cane proclaims his visual status but vest-wearing ‘helpers’ have not once got off their phones and suggested a guiding arm. 

These problems could have been foreseen and ameliorated. By ignoring them, even now, two years in, by assuming people will trudge on, by not caring who is affected, offering endless and meaningless apologies ‘for the inconvenience’ — in so many ways, Network Rail show they view us all as of no value.

I object!  

Paul Spencer-Longhurst

Abbey Road

The layout of the junction of Abbey and Botley Roads is an accident waiting to happen.′

Life in Abbey Road has been seriously and increasingly eroded. Particularly irksome are:

• The gross inconvenience of not being able to drive to other parts of Oxford except via the ring road, which is often solid with traffic and was for weeks virtually inaccessible due to road works at the Botley interchange.
• Very poor provision for pedestrians and cyclists to navigate the tunnel under the bridge: it is too narrow for the motorbikes that use it and the pathway is uneven. This should at least have been relaid with smooth asphalt on a level surface, to help those with mobility problems or poor eyesight. The marshals should have power to compel cyclists etc to dismount.
• The layout of the junction of Abbey and Botley roads is an accident waiting to happen. The timing of the lights does nothing to prevent cyclists from speeding over the bridge towards pedestrians. Cars stopping and even parking right at the corner of Abbey Road to drop off or pick up travellers are invisible turning in from the main road until the very last minute. Enforced no parking or stopping for at least 50 yards of each side of Abbey Road would greatly reduce likelihood of an accident.
• The path by the Sheepwash Channel is a vital pedestrian route to Jericho especially when the alternative via the Botley Road is curtailed. It is a major problem to residents that it has been intermittently out of use for very long periods, even when no visible work is being done.

All this has gone on for far, far too long, with one completion date after another abandoned at the last minute, and still no definite timetable or programme of work in place. The combined effect has been to make local residents and businesses feel under siege, isolated and ignored. Those of us with physical disabilities feel particularly vulnerable, with greatly reduced freedom of movement and quality of life.

Network Rail, the city and county councils, Thames Water and other authorities all combine hopeless lack of foresight, gross inefficiency, little mutual communication and appalling arrogance.

Grant Nightingale

West Way

My name is Grant Nightingale. I am retired and in my 79th year. The ongoing closure of Botley Road is an inconvenience to me. It doubles the number of bus journeys it takes for me to traverse the centre of Oxford. In addition, the length of the walk between buses leaves me tired.