BICESTER 2019: 'CARMAGEDON'

2019 might seem like four long years away.  However just think how recently 2011 was.  That was the year of the Royal Wedding and the Japanese tsunami.  It does not seem that long ago.   So having read the information on our other pages, we would like to bring the problem all together for you.  Please imagine that it is:

Bicester is divided into two halves by the East West Rail line.  There are only three locations where you can cross it by road; the A41 flyover; London Bridge level crossing and Charbridge Lane level crossing.  There are no other ways to cross this railway line in Bicester.  The map below illustrates these crossing points:

If you are unsure where we mean, below are images taken from Google Earth.

As you are probably a resident of Bicester or a surrounding village then you will be in no doubt of the traffic congestion Bicester Village causes most weekends and particularly at Easter, school holidays, Black Friday and during the months of November, December and January.

To illustrate, this is a view showing traffic congestion at Bicester Village on 26th December 2014.  It should be noted that this still occurred despite Bicester Village customers being able to park in Tesco's car park and Bicester Village implementing their most robust traffic management programme ever.

Our point is that this situation is quite frequent almost common at busy times.  As residents we have grown to even expect and anticipate it.

Even though we might have grown accustomed to it.  Remember that this is 2019, so you must remember that a lot has changed;

• Up to 13,000 new homes have been built.  Based on national averages, those new residents have brought with them approximately 26,000 new cars.
  
• Tesco have opened their new store but you cannot get there unless you are prepared to fight your way past the Bicester Village shoppers queuing down the A41 from the M40.  And that new 'hamburger' style roundabout the council have built will not aid your progress as it is designed only for traffic avoiding Bicester on the A41.
  
• No new roads have been built.  There will be zero increase in our existing infrastructure.
  

And most significantly, East West Rail has opened.  Bicester Town now has eight trains per hour going to the destinations of Reading, Oxford, Milton Keynes, Bedford and London.  As described in the page 'New Railway Links', our two railway crossings are going to be working much harder;

• London Road level crossing will close for between 24-45 minutes per hour (75%).
  
• Charbridge Lane level crossing will be closed for a minimum of 12 minutes per hour (20%).
  

In the diagram below, the A41 flyover is blocked/congested by traffic queuing to get to Bicester Village or the new Tesco store.  London Road level crossing is blocked for most of each hour.  Charbridge Lane is the only reliable route between central Bicester and Langford Village and the southerly villages.

As a result the residents in Langford, New Langford, Ambrosden and Launton are isolated from the the main part of town and the amenities.  Their quick and easy access to Bicester has been cut off.  They have no access to either the new Tesco supermarket or the Sainbury's in town without encountering substantial congestion.

The businesses at Bicester Distribution Park will not be able to access the M40 quickly or have their good delivered without queuing with Bicester Village shoppers traffic.

Worse still should there be an emergency at Langford, neither the Police or Fire Brigade have rapid or easy access to any area south of the railway line.  Should the emergency services opt to go via one of the level crossing routes and then have to wait for a long slow, containerised freight train to pass then who is to say that lives will not be lost in those critical minutes?

Your councillors are not aware of these issues.  They seem to busy listening to BicesterVision to understand the complexity of what they are agreeing.  Only in February 2015 did Oxfordshire County Council meet to speak about this specific issue.  Does this generate confidence in your elected representatives abilities to analyze the decisions they are making?

Shocked?  Scared?  So are we. 

Now before you say "I live in the northern part of town so I'm ok".  Please remember that those 13,000 new homes will bring 26,000 new cars but there will be no new road infrastructure built anytime before 2020.  How easy will it be to drive down Queens Avenue?

Please join our campaign and help save Bicester from 'carmagedon' in 2019.  Join our mailing list by clicking here.  With your help we will be able to pressurise all our elected representatives to start working to benefit Bicester, or we will help replace them with people better qualified.

Your councillors.  If they knock on your door, ask them about these issues.  Ask them where their vote lay when the proposals were discussed.

We will work very hard to ensure that they are held accountable for their decisions. 

(BTC) denotes that those councillors are also Bicester Town Councillors.