NetworkHell

[NetworkHell @NetworkHellOxfd]

Briefing meeting with Network Rail at the Kings Centre Osney Mead tonight at 5 pm. Worth making the effort, this is not like those awful drop-in sessions with the PR guy, now it's the people actually doing the work who lead the discussion and they do listen.

[NetworkHell @NetworkHellOxfd]

@CliveWismayer Let me help you out

[NetworkHell @NetworkHellOxfd]

We're now on Bluesky. It's becoming hard to justify staying here.

[NetworkHell @NetworkHellOxfd]

The venue for tomorrow has been changed to
The King's Centre, Osney Mead, Oxford, OX2 0ES

[NetworkHell @NetworkHellOxfd]

@OxfordCity Just make sure us plebs don't get to vote on it, won't you?

[NetworkHell @NetworkHellOxfd]

The rail minister Lord Hendy is visiting Oxford on Friday 24 January to explain nothing about the Botley Road fiasco is his fault and that everything's now ok. If you disagree, come and tell him outside the community centre in Botley Road by the Thames bridge, Friday at 9:30 a.m.

[NetworkHell @NetworkHellOxfd]

@Heidi_Labour You first need to find out why Network Rail is such a disaster
https://t.co/KtbzaUD5h8

[NetworkHell @NetworkHellOxfd]

I listed 9 ways Oxfordshire County Council contributed to the disaster of Network Rail's endless closure of the only east-west road in Oxford. Their response, ' yeah, well, we hate them too!' . Guys, that wasn't the question....I'm accusing YOU!

https://t.co/cjiAUYZXwR

[NetworkHell @NetworkHellOxfd]

But it's also sickening and infuriating to see that the Network Rail managers who considered the dangerous mess they left there for two full years quite good enough for us plebs judge it won't do for their masters 30 minute visit. They disgust me.

[NetworkHell @NetworkHellOxfd]

Network Rail is furiously busy prettifying the Tunnel of Doom into Oxford ahead of the state visit by their only shareholder, the minister. It's hilarious to see such cynical maneuvering, reminiscent of Potemkin's famous villages.

[NetworkHell @NetworkHellOxfd]

"It is incredibly depressing how little thought went in to what a catastrophic impact this would have on so many lives."

[NetworkHell @NetworkHellOxfd]

The report as prompted quite a few people to describe their experiences of the closure for the first time. This one is particularly appalling and sad:

[NetworkHell @NetworkHellOxfd]

"Thank you so much for doing this. I ended up leaving my job (NHS) because the impact on my commute became unsustainable although I kept going for the first year. I've met another NHS worker who had to leave their post as a direct result....

[NetworkHell @NetworkHellOxfd]

@networkrail Here's some more stories of the railway. 32 people in West Oxford, disabled, and small businesses, whose lives have been damaged by NetworkHell's endlessly botched project at Oxford station. https://t.co/KtbzaUCxrA.

[NetworkHell @NetworkHellOxfd]

I've learnt many things from this. One is that, in terms of incompetence, inefficiency, arrogance and total lack of accountability, there's nothing to choose between public and private corporations. Network Rail, Thames Water, British Gas, they all show the same behaviours.

[NetworkHell @NetworkHellOxfd]

You can now download and print at home a campaign poster here, ' Give us our road back!'

https://t.co/arGheuNsF3

[NetworkHell @NetworkHellOxfd]

Result, congestion and journey times across Oxford have increased, with inevitable economic cost. It's not just West Oxford that Network Rail have screwed.https://t.co/eCpnDjKw7a

[NetworkHell @NetworkHellOxfd]

One thing that's emerging is that the county councils imposition of LTNs drove traffic off side streets onto main routes, intending that bus gates would reduce private car use. But Network Rail's 2 year closure of Botley Road made that impossible.

[NetworkHell @NetworkHellOxfd]

Staggering admission by Network Rail that they didn't do the preparatory work thoroughly, to save a few bob. If so , who's in the firing line? Surely not the chair of NR at the time?

https://t.co/f3QpCO6cxj

[NetworkHell @NetworkHellOxfd]

The report covers the impact on local people of the 600+ day closure of the only road connecting West Oxford to the rest of the city. It does so through personal statements by 32 people who have been badly affected, mostly people with mobility problems, or local small businesses