
Southern exit from Oxford station: Botley Road bridge, with a GWR IET at right.
COURTESY NETWORK RAIL
'That sweet city with her dreaming spires, she needs not June for beauty’s heightening.’ Poet Matthew Arnold had it right about the city of Oxford, but, with apologies to Oscar Wilde, la ville, c’est magnifique, mais pas la gare. For this city’s station, attracting over eight million passengers a year before the pandemic, has long been inadequate for the traffic on offer.