Recent research for my own website on the Cheltenham to Kingham / Oxford railway proposal, for the page about the other local railway reinstatement proposals, has uncovered a number of other local railway reinstatement proposals.

These are

1 - The proposal to restore the 9 mile long Stratford Upon Avon to Long Marston and

Honeybourne railway which comes with a price tag variously estimated at between £110 and £228 million 

This is promoted by the local authority and the local railway user group and recent work has been done on the proposal in early 2025 in the form of a Strategic Outline Business Case.

2 - The proposal to restore the 14 mile long (Oxford) Yarnton Junction to Witney and Carterton railway which comes with a price tag variously estimated at between £600 / £700-900 million.

This is promoted by the local authority, Oxfordshire County Council and The Witney Oxford Transport Group .

Recent work on the proposal includes studies etc in to the re-opening by both Oxfordshire County Council in 2023-2024  (putting the cost at £700-900 million) and the local authority in 2025 (putting the cost at £600 million).

However despite the cost the studies found the railway would be viable.

 

After details of the scheme for a restored railway line between Cheltenham and Kingham (Oxford) were passed to Cotswold Line Promotional Group recently there was one suggestion made by a member surveyed, for an entirely new railway to be built between the Cheltenham to Andoversford village line and the restored railway line between Carterton and Oxford with a junction at Witney .

However this would be very difficult to do because the proposal would rely on using the trackbed of the Midland and South Western Junction Railway at Andoversford which has largely been redeveloped South of the junction with the Banbury and Cheltenham Direct Railway. 

Also building a new formation / track to Witney would be very costly.

 

More details of the neighbouring railway projects are at 

https://free-3733520.webador.co.uk/neighbouring-railway-reinstatement-re-opening-projects

 

Questions 

1 - What is Gloucestershire County Council Stance on the proposal for the restoration of the railway line between Stratford upon Avon and Honeybourne?

2 - What is Gloucestershire County Council view of the proposal to restore the railway line between Carterton, Witney and Yarnton Junction (Oxford)?

REPLY FROM COUNCILLOR ROGER WYBORN

1) Our adopted Local Transport Plan commits to “exploring the reopening of the
rail line between Honeybourne and Stratford upon Avon with relevant partners”.
GCC supported the Strategic Outline Business Case submitted to the DfT, as a
member of the North Cotswolds Task Force. The scheme was funded through

the Restoring Your Railway fund which has now ceased and is not currently
supported by Network Rail. However, GCC continue to advocate for
improvements on the North Cotswold Line itself, which will deliver significant
additional capacity and resilience on the route and there is no appetite among
the rail or neighbouring local authorities to pursue it now.
2) GCC will only support third-party proposals for re-opening of railways where a
robust business case can be provided, as per our adopted Local Transport Plan
policies. Officers will continue to explore options with the backing of rail industry
partners. In the first instance, we would assess Network Rail’s appetite for such
a scheme before proceeding further. It is worth noting that Oxfordshire County
Council's Draft Rail Strategy (OxRail 2040) does commit to developing and
promoting the case for a Mass Rapid Transit Corridor between Oxford and
Carterton. GCC will continue to explore opportunities to improve connectivity
along the A40 with regional partners.