Bicester Town Station

Since my last visit, work on the new Bicester Town station has moved on quite a bit.  All traces of the old station have gone as have some adjacent industrial units.  Through access to Bicester Village has been closed off and the bus replacement service no longer leaves from Station Approach.  It apparently leaves from Pingle Drive outside the Village shopping mall.  This would appear to defeat the object of a rail replacement bus service if it does not leave from the same location as the train. The fact that you cannot walk easily to Pingle Drive from Station Approach any longer must be very annoying to those used to catching the bus from the station site.
However the new station is taking shape and new hoardings on London Road proclaim that you will be able to catch a new fast train service to Central London from this summer.  This would appear to be a tad optimistic or we can look forward to a longer summer this year!

 Here is the hoarding along the work site on the south side of the line.

A closer look.

Looking east from the level crossing you can see more evidence of the cabling work and a recently cast concrete base which I am guessing will soon see the installation of a control cabinet.

Looking the other way from the level crossing, the new station is taking shape.  The north side is the site of recently demolished station

 This shows the new westbound platform.  The new platforms appear to be slightly staggered with the westbound nearer the level crossing.

 The next three photos show the extensive station work site.  Left to right from the London Road end.

 Here are a couple of closer shots of the station building and car park.

I then moved round to the business park of the south side of the line and took a few shots of the work.

 This was taken from London Road.  The new platform is quite a bit higher than the adjacent car park.

 Here is the station building from the other side.

 Here the lift towers awaiting the connecting footbridge look quite imposing.

 One of the lift towers with some of the footbridge support.

Finally on my last visit I took a shot of the bridge over the A41 just north of Aylesbury Parkway station and commented on its neglected state.  Shortly after it was replaced with a new bridge seen here.  However the replacement appears to be only single track which could be shortsighted once services commence to Milton Keynes and Bedford.  Passive provision for double track would have allowed capacity to be expanded if the service became more popular than expected.