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Oxford to Leamington Spa rail line closed on Tuesdays?

I've been looking into advance tickets on CrossCountry Railway for travel from Oxford to Leamington Spa. It seems that for summer 2024, work on the line means that no trains are running on Tuesdays. I have not been able to find out how long this will be going on. Can anyone help with that? Tickets in August and beyond are not yet bookable, so I can't use the scheduler to figure this out, and I can find no helpful statement on any railway web site.

An alternate bus route is offered on Tuesdays, but it means that a 35 minute train ride is traded for a 2 hour bus ride with 1 change. Ugh. I'm trying to figure out whether I need to cut short my Oxford stay by one night and travel on a Monday evening instead.

Posted by
13 posts

Thanks for the quick responses.
I discovered the closures when using the scheduler (e.g. as if making a purchase) to explore timing and price of advance tickets. I selected two different Tuesdays in July and found no trains running. I found very generic statements about work being done on the line, but no conclusive statement about when that work would be concluded.

Posted by
33992 posts

the information about the closing of the line - including the specific Tuesday - is at https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/engineering-works/banbury-20240727/ which reads:

Buses replace trains between Leamington Spa and Bicester Village /
Didcot Parkway from Saturday 27 to Wednesday 31 July See all service
disruptions

Engineering work details Starts 27 Jul 2024 to 31 Jul 2024

Train operators affected

Chiltern Railways CrossCountry Great Western Railway Route(s) affected
Chiltern Railways between Birmingham Moor Street and London Marylebone

CrossCountry between Manchester Piccadilly and Bournemouth and between
Newcastle and Reading

Great Western Railway between Banbury and Oxford / London Paddington

Description Engineering work is taking place between Leamington Spa
and Bicester North, closing all lines.

Chiltern Railways:

Buses will replace trains between Leamington Spa and Bicester Village
(connecting out of Oxford services).

CrossCountry:

Buses will replace trains between Leamington Spa and Didcot Parkway.

Great Western Railway:

Saturday and Sunday:

Buses will replace trains between:

Didcot Parkway and Oxford (fast).

Didcot Parkway and Oxford via Appleford, Culham and Radley.

Oxford and Banbury via Tackley, Heyford and Kings Sutton.

Monday to Wednesday:

Buses will replace trains between Oxford and Banbury via Tackley,
Heyford and Kings Sutton.

Check before you travel:

If you are travelling with CrossCountry, you can plan your journey
using the National Rail Enquiries Journey Planner

If you are travelling with Chiltern Railways or Great Western Railway,
these changes are not currently shown in the National Rail Enquiries
Journey Planner, please check back nearer to the time of travel.

Engineering work on the line tends to happen within the announced windows. Occasionally there is overrunning engineering work which can affect the first trains immediately after the window but that is not common.

If they say it is one night, I believe them. If they say it will be 5 days I believe them.

If it is an emergency closure due to some sort of incident it can become open ended.

This is a planned closure and it will be expected to run to time.

Is that the day you are concerned about? That's the only Tuesday I can see affected. Too early to know about August.

Posted by
13 posts

Thanks, Nigel. I'm actually travelling in September. I'm trying to book hotels ahead of time, which is why I was concerned about work on this line: if a closure made it preferable to shift my travel dates, I can't make non-refundable hotel reservations (which are always cheaper). I was also concerned because an early morning train would get me to Leamington in time for a 9:30 meeting, but the alternate bus route would make me late. But I see now that the closure is not a recurring event. Alas, there is no way to know at this time what closures might affect travel in September.

Posted by
8134 posts

Looking at the detailed timetable, not seemingly in the journey planners yet, on those July days there is a non stop bus from Oxford to Leamington Spa as well as the stopping ones to Banbury, change for LS.
That leaves Oxford at 47 minutes past each hour from 0547. So the 0747 arrives at Leamington Spa at 0907.
The fast ones coming back are at 45 past the hour, arriving Oxford 1:20 later at 5 minutes past the hour.

Normally such timetables are well padded, so I would be confident about arriving on time.

So if the Meeting was that Tuesday you could still make the 0930 meeting. I don't know why they are not in the journey planners yet.