As regular users of the Cotswold Line between Worcester and Oxford  will know, First Great Western train services have now been suspended for six weeks for the first phase of work to allow the line, singled in 1971, to be redoubled.  

The work is due for completion in 2011 and it will significantly increase the capacity of the route.  At present, the line has long single-track sections that have seriously compromised punctuality of train services. 

One of the single-track sections is between Evesham and Moreton-in-Marsh through Honeybourne.  And that's why this improvement is of considerable interest to the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway. 

As part of the improvement programme, Network Rail offered to make provision for the GWR, opening up the real possibility for the GWR to continue extending northwards from Broadway and eventually gain access to Honeybourne station.

Honeybourne once sported a four-platform station and was where the Stratford-Cheltenham and Worcester-Oxford main lines crossed and inter-connected. With withdrawal of local passenger services between Cheltenham and Honeybourne in 1960, followed by Evesham-Stratford trains in 1969, the station closed and the line was singled in 1971.  However, population growth and pressure from the Cotswold Line Promotion Group led to part of the old Down platform being reopened in 1981, albeit unmanned and sporting just a simple shelter. Before singling, Oxford-bound trains used one side of an island platform, which remains but is to be rebuilt.  The opposite side was used by services to and from Cheltenham and provision is being made for GWR trains from Cheltenham, Toddington and Broadway to use this platform face once again. 

The work also involves re-siting the connection with what's left of the Stratford line, now a single-track branch that serves the former MoD depot at Long Marston.  The depot is now owned by St. Modwen Developments and is used for rolling stock storage: there is an interesting photographic record of the branch here. 

From Honeybourne, future GWR trains would run alongside the Oxford main line for a short distance, before curving to the left and then descending on a long right hand curve to pass beneath the main line and head south towards Broadway. 

We will shortly add to our 'History Lesson' series with a feature on Honeybourne junction, which was the terminus of the 'Coffee Pot' service from Cheltenham St. James, serving all stations between.

 The Worcester-Oxford improvement closures are as follows:

• Worcester-Oxford, from 18 July to 3 August
• Evesham-Moreton-in-Marsh, from 3 August to 24 August
• Worcester-Oxford, from 24 August to 1 September 

Replacement bus services will be running while some Cheltenham Spa-Paddington services will extended to and from Great Malvern, Worcester or Hereford. Full details are on the First Great Western website.