{"id":548306,"date":"2025-11-04T11:09:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T11:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/548306\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T11:09:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T11:09:14","slug":"a-train-line-near-london-is-set-to-reopen-soon-for-the-first-time-in-over-60-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/548306\/","title":{"rendered":"A Train Line Near London Is Set To Reopen Soon For The First Time In Over 60 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Cowley-Branch-line-announcement-1024x576.jpg\" class=\"img-fluid\" alt=\"The Network Rail team holding up the sign for the soon to reopen Cowley Branch Line\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCredit: Network Rail<\/p>\n<p>    Save<\/p>\n<p>It looks like Christmas has come early for the <strong>scholarly city of Oxford<\/strong>, as it\u2019s just been announced that the historic hotspot is soon to be the lucky recipient of two shiny new train stations. And what\u2019s more, the railway line on which the stations in question will be perched is reopening to the public for the first time in<strong> 62 years<\/strong>, having only been used by freight trains since 1963.<\/p>\n<p>The reopening of the <strong>Cowley Branch Line<\/strong> comes as part of a rather ambitious (and pricey) plan to transform the area near London into <strong>Europe\u2019s answer to Silicon Valley<\/strong>. The government has pledged \u00a3120 million to reopen the train line, but the wider project (which involves creating an \u2018Oxford-Cambridge corridor\u2019) is set to cost<strong> \u00a3500 million in total<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p> <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-337464 size-full\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"An architectural mock-up of the new station being built in Oxford\" width=\"750\" height=\"562\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1762254553_624_image.jpg\"\/>Credit: Foster + Partners <\/p>\n<p>The architectural-aficionados over at <strong>Foster + Partners<\/strong> have revealed the first images of Littlemore station; one of the two new stations that will be landing in <strong>Oxford<\/strong>. The other new station will be built at Oxford Cowley, and trains are set to run directly from the both stations to <a href=\"https:\/\/secretldn.com\/best-things-to-do-london\/\" rel=\"follow noopener\" target=\"_self\" class=\"shortcode-outbound-link\" data-has-ga=\"true\" data-ga-type=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/secretldn.com\/best-things-to-do-london\/\" data-action=\"text_cta_0\" data-category=\"click_internal\">London Marylebon<\/a>e twice-hourly once they\u2019re up and running.<\/p>\n<p>Home to two of the most <a href=\"https:\/\/secretldn.com\/london-school-of-economics-ranked-best-university-in-london-guardian\/\" rel=\"follow noopener\" target=\"_self\" class=\"shortcode-outbound-link\" data-has-ga=\"true\" data-ga-type=\"click\" data-label=\"https:\/\/secretldn.com\/london-school-of-economics-ranked-best-university-in-london-guardian\/\" data-action=\"text_cta_1\" data-category=\"click_internal\">prestigious universities<\/a> in the world; Oxford and Cambridge are both global hubs of innovation. Creating a better connection between the two could supposedly add <strong>\u00a378 billion to the UK\u2019s economy<\/strong> by 2035. And reopening the Cowley Branch Line could create up to 10,000 new jobs. If all goes to plan, the line could reopen as soon as <strong>2029<\/strong>, and it would be full steam ahead from there.<\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-337461 size-full\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"A train ticket from Oxford Parkway to the Cowley Branch Line\" width=\"1200\" height=\"717\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Screenshot_24-10-2025_14226_32980588.isolation.zscaler.com_.jpeg\"\/>Credit: Network Rail <\/p>\n<p>Chancellor of the Exchequer, <strong>Rachel Reeves<\/strong>, said: \u201cOxford and Cambridge are home to two of the best universities in the world, two of the most intensive innovation clusters in the world, and the area is a hub for globally renowned science and technology.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYet thanks to years of underinvestment, they still lack the public transport, affordable housing, and infrastructure they need. That changes under this government.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have massive ambitions for the<strong> Oxford-Cambridge corridor<\/strong>, that\u2019s why we\u2019re reopening the Cowley Branch railway 60 years after it closed, why we\u2019re building more affordable housing and investing in business, and how we\u2019ve been able to unlock \u00a310 billion in private investment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Network Rail Save It looks like Christmas has come early for the scholarly city of Oxford, as&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,17009,257,48069,19658,10763,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-548306","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-local-trip","12":"tag-london","13":"tag-national-trip","14":"tag-public-transport-tickets","15":"tag-trip-travel","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115491122378139438","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}