Category: travel

NEW speed limits in the Thame area are being proposed in an effort to reduce road casualties.
The project, which has come from the county council’s Executive Committee, will include the A329 Milton Common to the A418 Thame, and the B4012 Thame to the A40 at Tetsworth.
Copies of the public notices, draft Orders and location plans for these can be seen at the Thame Information Centre in Thame Town Hall. Objections to the proposal, specifying the grounds on which they are made and any other representations, should be sent in writing to James Wright, Oxfordshire County Council, Speedwell House, Speedwell Street, Oxford OX1 1NE, or e-mailed to: james.wright@oxfordshire.gov.uk by no later than January 12, 2007.

THE station platform at Chinnor was alive with the voices of Carol Singers last Saturday evening, 16th December, as the Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway prepared to run its regular pre-Christmas Carol Evening steam train.
The air was filled with the smell of warm steam as the misty spectacle of the Chinnor Christian Aid Singers boarded the train for a trip down the line, accompanied by a train full of passengers looking forward to an evening of carols.
Train staff supplied coffee, tea and mince pies galore as the train ran to Thame Junction and returned to Chinnor station.

MORE than 200 cyclists were caught riding in the dark without lights in a month-long crack down across Thames Valley.
Officers stopped 220 riders who were putting themselves and other road-users at risk by riding on the road with no lights.
The enforcement campaign ran from 1 to 30 November. During the campaign, riders who were stopped were given a

OXFORDSHIRE County Council has started a review of subsidised bus services in the Thame, Watlington and Wheatley areas including Chinnor, Chalgrove, Tetsworth and Forest Hill.

OCC say that over

EXTENSION of traffic island until December 22, by Oxfordshire County Council Highways on the A418 Thame To Shabbington road: single lane traffic.
For further details telephone 0845 310 11 11

A Temporary ?No Waiting at Any Time? restriction will be in place during the Thame October Charter Fair, from 8am on Thursday, October 12 2006 to 12.00 midday on Sunday, October 15.
The area covered by the closure is the carriageway on the North-East side of the Upper High Street Car Park, from its junction with North Street to its junction with East Street.

SUSTRANS, the sustainable transport organisation, is to launch a new cycle route that will link with the Thame Phoenix Trail.
The official opening of National Cycle Route 57, between Princes Risborough and Chesham, will take place on Saturday, October 28.
The opening of NCR 57 will provide a signed, on road route through the Chilterns from Chesham to Princes Risborough. This will then link through to the popular traffic-free Phoenix Trail from Princes Risborough to Thame.
The official opening ceremony will be at 12.30pm at Chesham Town Hall with the Mayor of Chesham, Cllr Mohammad Fayyaz. (The Town Hall is situated off Baines Walk, Chesham Bucks HP5 1DS. Tea and coffee will be provided by Chesham Town Council.

A supporters’ opening ride and official send off will preceed the ceremony at 10.30 am, from Market House, Market Square,Princes Risborough, and the Mayor of Princes Risborough, Cllr Gary Hall, will officially send the cyclists off.

Anyone who would like to attend the opening ceremony in Chesham and/or the supporters ride, please contact Jo Hamilton either by phone: 01865 205 230, or by email: jo.hamilton@sustrans.org.uk . Maps of the venues and route can be supplied upon request.

A HUGE survey is to be carried out to gauge school travel habits and encourage less car journeys.
Schools across Oxfordshire are to take part in the survey to find out how their pupils travel to school ?and hopefully encourage them to join the growing numbers who are walking or cycling.

Oxfordshire County Council?s Travel Plans Development Team is conducting its annual survey of journeys to school during September. Last year, more than 100 schools and 22,000 pupils took part.

The team sets up School Travel Plans with schools and they are proven to increase the number of pupils walking and cycling to school, and to reduce car usage and traffic congestion.

In Oxfordshire, School Travel Plans have changed about one in five car journeys to school in to walking, cycling or bus journeys

The Big Oxfordshire School Travel Survey will run from Monday, September 18 until Friday, September 29.

All mainstream schools, maintained or independent, are encouraged to take part and will receive a survey pack to help them join in. Taking part is an essential first step in developing a School Travel Plan.

Cllr David Robertson, Oxfordshire County Council?s cabinet member for transport, said: ?We?ve all recently experienced the difference to congestion levels that the return of pupils from school holidays makes to our roads.
?School Travel Plans work ? we now need to spread them even further than we already have. By taking part in this survey I hope that the imagination of other schools will be captured and that they will join the 134 schools in the county already signed up to these plans.?

THE inside lane and hard shoulder of the M40, southbound between junctions 4 and 3, will be closed on September 26, 27 and 28 between 10am and 6pm.
This is to enable police to search a nearby area as part of an on-going investigation.
Motorists are advised to avoid the area if at all possible.

A REQUEST has been submitted by Thames Water for a temporary road closure of a section of Cedar Crescent, Thame, whilst essential sewer improvement works are carried out.
A drawing, showing the extent of the temporary road works, is available to view at the Thame Information Centre in the Town Hall.
For further information, contact Cyril Okonkwo on 01189 236815.