Three of southern England’s most appealing cities will be reconnected by rail from Saturday 14 September – but with only two trains each way, each week.
GWR is bringing back direct intercity trains from Bristol via Bath to Oxford. The service – which also calls at Chippenham and Swindon – last ran in 2003. Since then, passengers between the West of England and the university city have had to change at Didcot Parkway, which can involve a wait of over 30 minutes.
The new Saturday-only service will begin at Bristol Temple Meads at 10.18am, calling at Bath Spa 13 minutes later and arriving at Oxford at 11.29am. Compared with the previous one-stop journey, passengers will save 27 minutes.
The first westbound journey beings at Oxford at 12.03 and returns to Bristol in 69 minutes.
Later in the afternoon, another round trip will be made between Bristol and Oxford. But anyone who misses the train will have to wait a week for the next direct service.
Mark Hopwood, managing director of GWR, said: “We’re always looking at innovative ways of creating new business and improving connectivity.
“Changing customer patterns since Covid have provided a clear opportunity for us to expand our leisure offering and the Bristol-Oxford route is one which offers real potential.”
The link between Oxford and Swindon takes half-an-hour – compared with 82 minutes on the S6 bus.
Councillor Jim Robbins, leader of Swindon Borough Council, said: “We are delighted that Great Western Railway is launching the new service as it will make it much easier for local residents to travel to Oxford and beyond.
“I hope the trial is a great success and it leads to permanent and more frequent services.”
Only part of the journey can be made using electric traction, because electrification between Bristol and Chippenham was abandoned and the branch to Oxford does not have wires. Peter Hendy, now the rail minister, said later of the project: “We’re all scarred by the Great Western electrification – which was the project from hell.
“That’s a really bad way of spending billions of pounds of public money.”
Separately, GWR will start running to a revived station north of Bristol on Saturday 28 September. Ashley Down will open on the site of the Ashley Hill station, which was closed 60 years ago. The link from Bristol Temple Meads will take nine minutes, with Filton Abbey Wood a further five minutes north.