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Am I right in thinking if you wanted to travel from the continent up to the north you'd have to disembark HS1 at St Pancras, walk with your luggage, possibly in the rain down a street of a few hundred yards to Euston. From there you would need to catch a HS2 train to get to Birmingham or a WCML train if you wanted to travel north of Birmingham? Terminating HS2 at Euston, because they can't get into St Pancras to seamlessly join up with HS1 seems like ridiculous future planning. What a pigs ear of a mess.

This is one of the most incompetent, mismanaged and farcical infrastructure projects I have seen in years. The council made no provision for the disruption this would cause and Kier couldn't run a piss up with a train load of alcoholics. Russia built an entire bridge to Crimea in a little over 2 years - and this included design. There needs to be a crimional fraud investigation of this entire project because the costs to the public purse has been more than 3 times the original quotes costs - the perils of the Cost+ scheme morons use to run local and national government capital schemes. Oxford Council have stated that Botley Road will not be reopened to traffic once the scheme completes and they have taken no action to mitigate the foads disruption. Anyone who thinks this is a good scheme is delusional.

Hmm. Sounds like a foul-up. Shoulda got all buy-ins in advance?

Great update, interesting to see this. I doubt there’ll be any noticeable difference to day to day commuting after it’s done though with the same predictable trains cancelled and delayed.

This country can't build anything. Bet the budget is blow too.

What a blight East/West rail is. Botley residents are "lucky" compared with Bicester where London Road crossing is just to be closed permanently cutting off a similar sized section of Bicester. Both Oxford and Bicester would be better off without it.

The works have been a nightmare. Drivers attempting to avoid the work screw up the traffic for miles around. The butterfly effect.

Its Oxford its anticar anyway so not really a d issue because even if it was open you cant cross the city.

I wish we could build infrastructure better in the uk or at least in a more joined up way! At least it’s happening, I suppose!

Great video. Looking forward to seeing this completed. The sooner GB gets an extensive HSR network, the better. China and Japan are so far ahead of GB in this matter, it's embarrassing.

Another angle is that many businesses North of the bridge will have simply died, as prior customers can no longer conveniently drive over the bridge to reach them. I have no idea whether they are being compensated.

In sort two major jokers that could not hold a drinks party in a pub ,Thames water and OCC. put them togeather = nightmare and the cost go through the roof

how are these old buildings not listed? Destroying more of our history is not ok. if cant stay in place move it elswhere on the huge site. Forget the bats

I wouldnt worry Oxfiord council is a car less zone so why bother I never go shopping anywhere there these days.The whole .Oxfordshire isnt that much better!!

Anything to do with a government project, can always be viewed as a gravy train (excuse the pun)! As with HS2 it would be interesting to see what the original budget was, and where we are now! I’ve no doubt whatsoever it is complicated, but as said, I mistrust government projects for the ‘keeerrrcchiinngg!’ enticement they provide the construction companies with!

Thames water seem incapable of keeping to a timetable. Swindon is a great example of them dragging their heels at a project.

In 2019 I moved from just off Botley Road at the Thames end, to Witney. No regrets!

If I decieded to demolish my house and build a new one - I would make sure that I had all architect drawings and planning permissions in place BEFORE any contract put the builders on the site. Not so with Network Rail What has happened here is infantile project management combined with lack of talking to other groups who would be involved in the demolition and rebuild.

I still think that the East-West rail link should extend to Cambridge. Plus I think that Network Rail should extend the electrification from Didcot Parkway to Oxford.

Still not completely sure whether this is incompetence on a hitherto unheard-of scale. Or some Machiavellian long-term plan to permanently close the Botley Rd vehicle access to Oxford centre.

The name "Kier" and catastrophic failure to deliver on promises are inextricably linked in the UK.

It must be less than thirty years since they last raised the bridge and lowered the road to increase the available clearance. At the time they said it couldn't go further because of the water table.

As I'm currently working on the project, I can tell you that you haven't got a clue what is going on. And it is just a wild guess and nowhere near what is actually going on and where the project is at currently.

Whats even more annoying is walking past to see the builders sitting around dling bugger all, saw 5 of them putting up one cable tie🤣🤣

why 6 plattforms result in only 10 trains an hour? here trains leave after 6 to 10 mins with changing direction, what results at least 6 trains a plattform

First walked over the bridge in 1962 been fascinated by it ever since .. walked and cycled over it many times over the years. Great coverage and loads of information on such a short video.. many thanks.

As a taxi driver working from the station it’s been a nightmare.we as taxi drivers have lost so much work.customers like elderly people have to pay the cost is a long way around

I travel from Newark to Oxford each month, currently via Kings Cross and Paddington. I'm hoping EWR and ECML are well integrated at Tempsford so I can avoid London altogether.

I live and work locally. It has doubled my comute to work through increased traffic on every other road heading into or around Oxford. Unfortunately, city planners also allowed quite a few other restrictive roadworks to be carried out at the same time. Many doubt the road will ever reopen. Oxford hates the car/motorist.

Without a doubt the worst part of the closure of the road under the bridge is the lack of redundancy for traffic that uses it. Botley is essentially completely cut off from the rest of Oxford now. There is no other road that cars or buses can use. The only alternative is driving out to the ring road. It’s awful for the residents of botley really, and even worse for the local businesses. No amount of appreciation for the future-proofing of the railway will offset these frustrations.

Unexploded 'ordnance', not "ordinance"..

I think they should build the northern approach, then terminate trains at Cambridge South. This would: -Serve Cambridge North -Also serve Cambridge South -Serve Northstowe -Still be cheaper! Trains could be turned around just south of South station. However one disadvantage is that it will be hard to extend trains to Ipswich, Felixstowe and Norwich.

HS2 is 400m a mile.. thats just too much. its the highest in the world, and by a lot, even though the UK is flat as fuck. i love infrastructure, but HS2 isnt the solution, the company should be dissolved and the project overtaken by a nationalised entity

Thanks for the useful and well explained video! I vaguely remember that the actual bridge replacement was due to take place in August (2024?) to coincide with the only time in the year when the line could be completely closed (because of the summer shutdown to freight services?). I cannot find the relevant info and I may not have that exactly right but is that (still) true and if so would that mean that, regardless of when anything else is completed, the bridge replacement can only take place in August of any given year?

RE: bus heights, this is from Network Rail "As part of the plans, the road network will also be improved near to the station as the railway bridge above Botley Road will be replaced and the road lowered to enable standard double-decker buses to pass underneath for the first time". Double deck buses have been able to pass under the bridge but they were not what is considered a standard height. People may disagree with this justification, but I can only repeat what information I am able to find from official sources.

If only Network Rail had read the reports from previous attempts over the previous 100 years where changes to the bridge were abandoned due to the nature of the ground underneath. The reason it hasn't been lowered before is because the water table is very tight under the existing surface, and the ground is too wet (hence the previous GWR arch). This video makes it seem like all of the issues were unknowns, and other issues. This isn't the case, this is entirely down to poor project planning by Network Rail. They were warned of all the issues, but decided to start the work anyway and try and work things out as they go along. For residents and local businesses, this is not just "some roadworks" this is the splitting of the city in 2. For example to go from Botley to Oxford used to take 10mins to go less than 2 miles, now because of closure the diversion is nearly 6 miles and can take, in traffic up to an hour on some days. Closing one of the main arteries into the city has also had a knockon effect on every other road in the city. All of this for a white elephant of a project which the latest updates on suggest one of the options is abandonment.

So long since I've lived in the area I hadnt realised it had been closed. The double deckers from Carterton, via Witney and Eynsham always went along Botley road and called at bus stops either side of the road on the east side of the bridge (used it many times) ....as did many other services. With previous work to the bridge, the old level crossing immediately south of the bridge (you can see it on google satellite view) was re-instated. Used to be used for over height vehicles....seemingly that option has long since gone away.

Doubledecker buses did used to go under the bridge. Does that mean they had to be non-standard? Anyway, it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good. Traffic on Botley road is now much lighter than before, which is good if you're not going into town.

The dash 2s could go to a couple of places in my opinion, you could send them to GWR, EMR for their connex services or even scottrail to replace their older EMUs but whoever gets them I would refurbish them into the same 2 plus 2 configuration as the other 350s, I’ve only been on these trains a few times but the 2 plus 2 units are really great for the disero family especially compares to their second generation units cough cough 700 series units*

Ok so in my opinion statistics wise these trains are great, but they need some things for me to be considered great, firstly no luggage racks on a train that goes to Heathrow and through a core section of London, I don’t understand this at all, secondly there should be at least two toilets on board each train that are accessible for the disabled with wheelchair spaces nearby, some journeys on these can take a while especially west of London, the sections of 2 plus 2 seating should have big tables provided and the seats should be made less firm throughout with more three pin and USB charging points provided, finally I fell an extra coach wouldn’t be unwelcome by many passengers and a higher top speed of 100mph would also help a little bit as well especially on the sections where they are in tunnels or not sharing track with other lines. They are a good enough train for those short to medium journeys but I do feel like they need a few things for those long distance and airport journeys and they could honestly be one of the best trains we have on our railways

Standard double decker buses are 4.4 metres and most sit under this height by a few centimetres so not "just shy of 5 metres" at all.

They are a massive step up from what they are improving, my only gripe is if it is possible perhaps I would’ve made the units 6 car trains for that bigger capacity but that not a major issue as in every other area they are better then what they are replacing which is what a modern train should be great stuff!

Great video, though I would have liked to see a mention of that time a drunk driver decided to try to squeeze their BMW through the pedestrian walkway. They got surprisingly far!

What's the cost saving for being able to use full height buses? Who is pushing for increased clearance? OCC are obsessed with getting all traffic down to walking pace, so what's the issue with buses having to go a bit slow under the bridge? On the face of it it seems a typical OCC project - one benefit at any cost with no consideration of any other consequences.

Double decker buses have always been able to pass under that bridge

Excellent video and narration. Gives a much better understanding of the problems and delays involved in the whole project.

Wrong double decker buses have always been able to pass under the bridge.

Great Report, very clear.

....ahhh.... Thames Water....... 🤦‍♂️

The doomers normally go overboard but at some point they're correct with how useless this country is