Change of departure station following the decision by Chiltern Rail to severely reduce their normal timetable between Christmas and early January, due to ongoing RMT strike action.
With planned rail strikes up until the day before this walk we can expect some disruption to services on so-called non-strike days. I am hoping the services shown below will be running on the 28th, but I will provide an update on the situation on Friday 23rd December.
Friday 23rd December update: travel still looking good for the 28th.
Length: full walk, including tour of the colleges 16.3 km (10.1 miles). Without tour 14.5 km (9 miles) Short walk today: 10 km (6.2 miles)
Toughness: all versions 1 out of 10 No hills today
Either
London Paddington: 10-20 hrs Great Western service to Oxford Reading 10-48 hrs
Arrive Oxford: 11-12 hrs
Or
For senior walkers with London Council's Freedom passes, you can travel from Paddington to Reading on Elizabeth Line services free of charge, leaving you to buy a day return from Reading to Oxford.
London Paddington: 09-40 hrs Elizabeth Line from Abbey Wood to Reading Ealing Broadway 09-51 hrs
Arrive Reading 10-40 hrs Change trains
Leave Reading 10-48 hrs Great Western service to Oxford (as above)
Arrive Oxford: 11-12 hrs
Return
Oxford to Paddington: Great Western services at approx 01 and 32 mins past the hour
Our choice of walk today might depend on whether the rivers Isis and Cherwell have burst their banks in recent times and flooded footpaths in adjacent fields. The route after lunch from Wolfson College is often impassable in winter, even for those wearing wellies, meaning we cannot walk between said college and University Parks. No matter - in recent years when this walk has been posted between Christmas and New Year we have been perfectly satisfied with the short version of this walk - as a post Christmas leg stretcher, combined with a nice lunch at one of the pubs in Wolvercote.
Leaving Oxford railway station we head for the Thames towpath (River Isis) which we join to walk in a north-westerly direction with Port Meadow over to our right. We pass Binsey and continue over water meadows and fields to Godstow lock and the ruins of Godstow Abbey, to come out on to a road, with the Trout Inn (a lunch option) on your right-hand side. Last year we discovered two pubs in Lower Wolvercote, and the suggestion today is we try one of them again, the Jacob's Inn, for our lunch stop.
After lunch we return to (Upper) Wolvercote, to cross the grassy expanse of Wolvercote Common to join the Oxfordshire Canal. We now enjoy a relaxing canal-side walk along its tow path towards the City centre, leaving the canal just before the centre to return to the railway station.
After any Christmas excesses this relaxing walk eases us back into SWC walk of a more demanding nature in 2023.
T=1.13
Walk Directions are here: L=1.13
3 comments:
I think you will find there are no Chiltern Railway services to Oxford on this date,
Many thanks Sarah H . Chiltern Railways have updated their timetable since I first posted this walk, and now, because of on-going strike action by RMT, they have decided to operate a greatly reduced service between Christmas and early January. On the 28th we can get to Oxford Parkway - but not Oxford ! Fortunately, Great Western are running services out of Paddington twixt Christmas and New Year (as of today, 16 December) and I will switch today's walk departure station from Marylebone to Paddington. I will provide an update on Friday 23 December, in case Great Western have further thoughts on their timetable.
Just goes to show how impossible the walk poster's task is at present.........
Just n=3 for my last Wednesday posting. Perhaps the unfavourable weather forecast put off some of our regulars. The steady rain which accompanied the train out of London and all the way to Oxford began to relent as the three of us met up in the entrance foyer of the railway station. By the time we set out the rain had almost stopped and within a mile it had. The sun remained on holiday all day, and apart from a breeze at times, it was very mild. So w=overcast-and-dull-but-mild-and-mostly-dry. The trains out of Paddington and back were running mostly on time to Great Western's amended timetable but with formations of only five carriages all trains were packed. I managed to get a seat leaving Paddington but I struggled to find even a standing space on the train leaving Oxford.
As for today's walk, there is nothing much to report. I was expecting the opening leg to be flooded in places but we just encountered lots of large puddles. The route between Binsey and Godstow was a bit muddy in places but nothing to get excited about. Two of us enjoyed a good lunch at the busy Jacob's Inn, whilst our sandwicher opted to set off on the afternoon leg of the walk - she met up with us on Oxford station, having visited Wolfson College, to find the route ahead locked.
The crossing of Wolvercote Common was dryer than usual, and we enjoyed the walk along the resurfaced towpath to the Oxfordshire Canal - dry, mud-free and spongy, so nice and easy on the tread. As we approached the railway station it began to drizzle. The station was packed, and as mentioned earlier, no seats were free on the train home.
An undemanding short walk but a good leg-stretcher after Christmas celebrations.
Post a Comment