Network Rail's Oxford project described as 'shambolic' that's left community 'angry but powerless'

A much-delayed rail improvement project has gone “disastrously wrong” and is causing serious damage to the local community, according to campaigners.

Botley Road, adjacent to Oxford station, has been closed since April 2023 with no end to the work in sight.

A £161 million Network Rail scheme to improve the station with a new entrance, and to make it ready for East West Rail services to start later this year, has severed one of the major road arteries into the city. Local businesses have repeatedly complained of lost trade.

A large collection of personal impact statements, compiled by author and local resident Julian Le Vay, has been published under the title ‘Network Hell’. Le Vay described the community as “angry but powerless”.

Network Rail acknowledged the delay was “frustrating” and said it was carrying out a review.

Botley Road is the main entrance to Oxford from the west, on the A420 from Swindon.

The original plan to expand the railway station involved closing the road under the railway for two six-month periods, with a six-month break in-between.

In September 2023, Network Rail announced a change of plan, with no break between the closures because work was behind schedule.

In July 2024, NR then said the road would not open in October as promised. No new date has been given.

Oxford West and Abingdon MP Layla Moran told the BBC there was now a “Mexican stand-off of incompetence”.

She said a final completion date would be announced later this month, when Rail Minister Lord Hendy and Network Rail Chief Executive Sir Andrew Haines are scheduled to visit the work, as she put it, “to see the damage they’ve caused”.

Julian Le Vay said his 40-page document recorded “the actual experiences of local people, published in a way that makes it difficult for people in power to ignore”. He said people on Botley Road felt “angry, depressed, and above all that nobody’s listening to them or taking them seriously”. The campaigners demand the road is reopened as a matter of urgency, with financial help for local businesses and an inquiry into what went wrong. In her introduction to the document, Liberal Democrat MP Moran criticised the “shambolic mismanagement” of the project.

She said it “laid bare” a “complete lack of accountability and transparency”, and that it was a message to those in charge “that the decisions they take at their computers and behind their desks are mechanical, impersonal, incompetent, unfeeling, and just plain wrong”.

Business owner Zack Iqbal, of First Stop Spanner Works, said: “This section of Oxford is closed for business, closed for residents, and just basically shut off from the rest of the world.”

Network Rail said it understood the concerns of businesses and residents, and that it would continue to engage with local authorities as it “developed its plans”.

In a statement, the Department for Transport said: “We’ve asked Network Rail for a clear plan to complete the works as quickly as possible.”

It added: “This work, part of the Oxford Station upgrade, will create a safer, more accessible road layout for buses, cyclists and pedestrians.”