To all Oxford United Football Club & travelling fans across the UK,

Oxford United Football Club will have a new home in the near future, which is fantastic news, but there will not be car parking at the club for the majority of football fans.

Therefore, there will need to be excellent public transport services for home  & away fans travelling to the new 16,000 seater stadium, as this will be by a combination of service buses and rail services as the main mode of transport to & from the stadium.

As I'm sure many of you are aware, service buses can only transport up to 100 passengers per bus, but thankfully there is a good, reliable & frequent bus service from Oxford City to Kidlington, providing buses every 7 to 8 minutes.

In addition to this, there are other bus services too, which pass the stadium near to Oxford Parkway Railway Station.

As I have mentioned, the nearest train station to the new 16,000 seater stadium is at Oxford Parkway, which is currently served by Chiltern Railways, operating a service every 30 minutes (2tph) from Oxford City to London Marylebone, and these trains are class 168 trains, which can carry up to 272 seated passengers per 4 car train set.

However, despite this, there are proposals for up to 8 trains per hour, serving Oxford Parkway but this is subject to DfT & ORR approval.

Most recently there has been approval for the Cowley & Oxford Science Park stations to reopen, which will provide additional services, but there will be limited car parking at both stations. So, despite the limited car parking, it is very good that the stations will reopen to transport fans to Oxford Parkway from the East of Oxford City.

In the South East there is Didcot Parkway Station, which will operate services to Oxford Parkway for Milton Keyenes, but this is subject to approval from the DfT & ORR.  In additon to this, there are services from London Paddington to Oxford City but it doesn't appear as though services from London Paddington will stop at Oxford Parkway but this could change subject to approval from the DfT & ORR.

Wantage & Grove Station in the South West (Science Vale) of Oxfordshire was closed in 1964, but Oxfordshire County Council & other stakeholders are proposing to have the station reopened.

Hopefully, with support from the UK Government, DfT & potential private investors, the station could reopen as early as 2030 or as late as 2040.   Therefore, this station could serve Oxford Parkway & Radley & Culham with an additional service from Bristol to Cambridge.  

This type of train could be a Hitachi 800 series - 9 carriage car with a seating capacity of 650 passengers, which is 139% greater than the class 168 of Chiltern Railways.

Train services from the West of Oxfordshire will serve Oxford City, so a change will be required at Oxford City to head to Oxford Parkway.

Train services from North Oxfordshire will be served from Birmingham to Banbury, Heyford, Tackley, Begbroke to Oxford City.  Therefore a change at Oxford City will be required to head to Oxford Parkway.

As I have said, the current Chiltern Railways sevice is 2 trains per hour to and from Oxford Parkway, and the class 168 trains have a seating capacity of 272 passengers.

Therefore, we really need the additional train services to serve Oxford Parkway and new station at Wantage & Grove Parkway, which could move 650 seated passengers.

This decision is subject to approval from the DfT, ORR, UK Treasury & UK Government.

Please sign this petition if you believe train services in Oxfordshire need improving.