Places with two stations: 18 Bicester

Saturday 6th September 2025

For this continuing fortnightly exploration of places with two stations I’ve visited Bicester in Oxfordshire famous for one of its two stations unusually being renamed from Bicester Town to Bicester Village in 2015 in recognition of the huge draw from the adjacent retail attraction of that name.

One might normally assume as a village grows in size a station might be upgraded to being called a town but in this case the marketing potential of attracting thousands of visitors to tap their credit cards at the many factory outlet units selling labelled merchandise at supposedly bargain prices was too much to ignore.

You can see from the above map how Bicester is surrounded by a series of A roads with its two stations once again almost on the same line of longitude with Bicester North being fairly centrally located about equi-distance from the town centre as Bicester Village in the south, next to the outlet retail centre.

What we now call Bicester Village originally opened in 1850 and for its first 104 years was simply known as Bicester. 1954 saw it renamed Bicester London Road but only until 1968 when the station closed because the line it was situated on – the Varsity Line between Oxford and Cambridge via Bletchley and Bedford also closed with just the section between the latter two places remaining open as it still is today.

The good news is, in 1987 the line between Oxford and what the station was then named as, Bicester Town, reopened but it was a rather basic affair with just one platform on the single track line.

In more good news Chiltern Railways announced plans to connect the tracks up with the main line to London just east of the station as well as reinstating double track through to Oxford, a new station at Oxford Parkway and direct trains to Marylebone.

So in 2014 the station closed again to allow for these final works to take place, and the all improved modern facility of Bicester Village station we know today reopened in 2015 with its new service to London and Oxford.

That was only 20 years after the retail complex opened back in 1995. For much of that period a shuttle bus service provided a regular link to Bicester North…

… which still runs today, presumably for the benefit of passengers arriving from Birmingham and stations north of Bicester.

Bicester North opened in 1910 on what was the Great Western Railway’s route to Birmingham. Since privatisation in the 1990s this line has also seen significant investment by Chiltern Railways, reinstating double track and providing a regular frequent service from Marylebone to the station and north to Birmingham (Moor Street and some journeys to Snow Hill) and on to Stourbridge at peak times.

It’s interesting to note in 2023/24 the Office of Road and Rail recorded 758,000 passengers using this main line station but over at Bicester Village, with its chequered history and branch line pedigree, the number of passengers was more than double at 1,760,000 showing the power of retail outlets as a draw, particular for visitors from the Far East of which there are hundreds every day.

This is all the more so when you compare the service provision and range of journey opportunities between the two stations

Bicester Village sees two trains an hour between Marylebone and Oxford albeit on a roughly 20/40 interval and with slightly varied stopping patterns between the two journeys while Bicester North also has two trains an hour to Marylebone (southbound) and two to Birmingham Moor Street or Snow Hill (northbound) with varied stopping patterns. Generally one train an hour runs non-stop to Marylebone taking anything between 48 minutes and an hour. By comparison, stopping trains from Bicester Village can take up to 70 minutes.

I was intrigued by the variable stopping patterns and journey times so looked in more detail at the 33 southbound departures from Bicester North to Marylebone on a weekday. Fastest journey time at 48 minutes is on the 12:55 departure which runs non-stop to Marylebone, but travel two hours later catching the 14:51 departure, and the same non-stop journey is timetabled to take 14 minutes longer at 62 minutes.

Other 62 minute length journeys are the 19:24 which makes four stops whereas similar four stop journeys at 16:21, 17:25, 18:25, 20:29 and 21:26 take 65, 61, 63, 61 and 61 minutes respectively. Longest journey time is on the 06:20 departure with seven stops and taking 73 minutes, however it is a Bicester North starter so there’d be no problem getting a seat whereas the following journey at 06:53 comes from Birmingham Moor Street and takes 20 minutes less time, running non-stop.

Time to take a look at the facilities both stations have to offer passengers.

Bicester Village obviously has a much more modern and contemporary set up with an open plan foyer and hotel style reception desk rather than a ticket office. There are two ticket machines in the foyer as well as one outside…

… and rather snazzy seating.

Beyond the gateline there’s a footbridge and lifts to connect the Marylebone bound platform with the Oxford one (on the right in the photo below)…

… and it’s interesting to compare the facilities on that Oxford bound platform which are rather basic…

.. with those on the platform for Marylebone where shoppers laden with their purchases can comfortably wait for a train back south.

As well as the exit through the newly built foyer, shown earlier, this platform also has the bespoke exit to the Bicester Village outlet with its separate gateline…

… and even Guest Services and swanky coffee stall…

… and rather plush toilets alongside another ticket machine.

Exiting through this gateline takes you through the multi-storey car park…

… and to the footpath taking you to the shops.

The signage here is on brand for Bicester Village, rather than National Rail…

… and the station refreshment offerings are definitely in another league from the usual Upper Crust and Puccino’s found elsewhere on the network.

Over at Bicester North it’s much more of a traditional affair…

… with an old style ticket office…

… and waiting room which also has two large ticket machines situated inside the room…

…as well as one outside by the open plaform.

There are also some rather nice photos of the station on display…

.. as well as a nice plant and excellent reading material for passengers to enjoy.

The northbound platform 1 has a rather imposing traditional old style GWR canopy…

… and a traditional footbridge (with lifts added in more contemporary times) taking you over to the southbound platform 2.

That platform is a more basic affair when it comes to facilities with…

… with three different shelter types…

… including this rather nice old style one…

… and two slim line more modern ones.

This platform was lengthened and widened in 2010 at the southern end at the same time the tracks were realigned to facilitate higher speeds.

Back on platform 1 a couple of traditional style units in the main building are now used by a taxi company…

…and independent coffee company.

For those making a connection to and from buses, there are a couple of bus stops a short walk from the station entrance/exit on Buckingham Road where Stagecoach’s S5 and X5 run three times and once an hour to Oxford respectively, with the latter also linking the station to Bedford – something trains will soon do once East-West Rail gets going. A local town route also stops here.

As you can see there’s no shelter provision for multi modal passengers making an integrated journey whereas at Bicester Village there are two shelters immediately outside the station entrance/exit…

…where buses on Stagecoach’s hourly route 500 to Banbury – for which there’s a timetable and map on display…

… and Red Rose Travel hourly route 25 to Upper Heyford (for which there’s nothing on display) terminate.

As just referenced, there’s more excitement for Bicester in the pipeline with the new East West Rail route soon to begin operated by Chiltern and providing a new link to Bletchley and Milton Keynes direct from Bicester Village adding to the number of passengers who use the station.

This is said to begin “in the second half of 2025” but as we’re already halfway through the second half I’ll believe it when I see it. I suppose the December timetable change is a strong possibility.

As you can see a huge change in fortunes for the former one platform Bicester Town over the last decade.

Roger French

Did you catch the 17 previous blogs in this series? 1: Hertford; 2: Canterbury. 3: Wigan, 4 Dorchester, 5 Windsor, 6 Wakefield, 7 Reddish, 8 Yeovil, 9 Newark-on-Trent, 10 New Mills, 11 Tyndrum, 12 St Albans, 13 Falkirk, 14 Catford, 15 Helensburgh, 16 Gainsborough, 17 Edenbridge.

Summer blogging timetable: 06:00 TThSSu*.

*Please note Su blogging ends after this weekend until 2026.