BICESTER has criticised solutions for the town s London Road level crossing problem put forward by East West Rail Company. A consultation has started, asking locals what they think about plans for East West Rail (EWR) - a rail link between Oxford and Cambridge. EWR plans to increase train services in Bicester, meaning the frequency of trains passing through the level crossing at London Road would rise and the crossing could be closed for up to 50 minutes in every hour. Six options have therefore been put forward to keep traffic flowing, including building an underpass, an overbridge or closing the road altogether to vehicles, but people are not convinced they would work.
Options to solve Bicester s level crossing problem scrutinised by town thisisoxfordshire.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thisisoxfordshire.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Here are the happiest news stories from this week:
Student graduates against the odds A student battled with the effects of the pandemic, family ill health and grief to graduate from Oxford University – becoming the first person from her family to get a degree, Sheshadri Kotterachchi, a first-generation student from Sri Lanka, lost her father just days before her final dissertation was due. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, she was unable to return to Sri Lanka to attend the funeral, so instead was left in Oxford grieving alone. The student was also struggling financially so had to work night shifts to pay for her rent.
A CYCLING group has made more than 250 deliveries of books during the pandemic for a town book shop. Together with 30-year-old independent Bicester business, Coles Books, volunteers from Bicester Bike Users Group (BicesterBUG) wanted to provide a local and sustainable alternative to delivery vans whizzing around streets. Before the pandemic, the bookshop in Crown Walk was already offering a limited local delivery service and had the advantage of daily deliveries from its book distributor, meaning delivery times were feasible. Its owner Nigel French and BicesterBUG came up with a scheme to use local bike riders to expand the offering of local deliveries, with a sustainable twist.