Calls for hourly Oxford-Bristol services as GWR confirms end date for successful Saturday trial

Hourly services between Oxford and Bristol would better connect high-performing, knowledge-intensive industries and universities, and would only require an operational cost to be introduced.

That’s the claim of a new report, The case for reinstating Oxford- Swindon-Bath-Bristol rail services, which calls for the reinstatement of a regular service between the two cities.

Daily services last ran between 1998 and 2003. At present, Great Western Railway runs two trains on Saturdays, with intermediate stops at Swindon, Chippenham and Bath Spa and an end-to-end journey time of 70 minutes.

Billed as a trial, it is set to end when the summer timetable starts in May. A GWR spokesman said: “Demands of the summer timetable mean it’s not viable to extend the trial beyond May without impacting customers elsewhere.”

The report, published by England’s Economic Heartland, East West Main Line Partnership, and Western Gateway, asks the government to specify the service in future timetables and to commit to fund operational costs.

It claims the business case reveals a positive benefit-cost ratio of above four, saying it represents “very high” value for money for a variety of demand scenarios (even including lower than forecast demand), and could be financially positive (not requiring operational subsidy)”.

Network Rail Western Route Director Marcus Jones said the service was an “obvious choice for investment” and a “rare opportunity to make a major connectivity improvement without infrastructure investment”.

The report also said that new services would allow a direct connection with East West Rail, which will begin Oxford-Milton Keynes services in 2025.

The Department for Transport said it was working with GWR to ascertain if the Saturday trial can be expanded.

GWR added: “We believe such services have potential but need to be aligned with potential resource availability.”