RAIL passengers will have to wait a little longer to benefit from the £67 million scheme to improve the Cotswold line to Oxford.

Work to reinstate double track on 20 miles of the line will now be completed in two phases, with the key 16-mile section between Evesham and Moreton-in-Marsh, in Gloucestershire, being completed in August next year, four months later than planned, although a redoubled four-mile section of the line in Oxfordshire will still be ready for trains to use from May next year.

The intention had originally been to complete all the work that month.

Explaining the change during a run along the route from Worcester’s Shrub Hill station to Oxford in Network Rail’s special high-speed inspection train this week, Network Rail project manager David Northey said: “We couldn’t meet the cost of providing a new signalling system within the funding available, so we had to go back and redesign that part of the scheme with conventional signals controlled from the existing signalboxes.

“This will still deliver the same improvements in reliability and punctuality of trains on the route that we planned at the outset."

The decision means a reprieve for Evesham’s signal box, where a digital control panel will be fitted to operate new colour-light signals along the line through the Vale of Evesham.

Once the full modernised route is available, train operator First Great Western plans to run two extra off-peak weekday services between Oxford, Worcester and Great Malvern.

Both westbound trains will run from London, while one of the eastbound trains will run through to the capital and the other to Didcot, bringing the Cotswold Line Promotion Group’s aspiration for a near-hourly off-peak service throughout the route closer, although for the time being this frequency will only be available from next May at stations between Moreton-in-Marsh and Oxford.

CLPG chairman Derek Potter said: “We welcome any extra trains on the line but do not want to see the development of a timetable which gives the western end of the route a second-class service.”

After completing extensive renovation work in Chipping Campden tunnel in Gloucestershire during a closure of the line last summer, including laying the first stretch of new double track, Network Rail plans to carry out the bulk of the remaining work from this December, with track engineers taking over the line overnight to minimise disruption to passengers.

This will mean an early end to train services each day, with late-evening services replaced by buses.

There will also be a week-long closure of the line in October this year, while a bridge is replaced at Honeybourne, and a two-week closure between Moreton-in-Marsh and Worcester in August next year to commission the new track and signals around Evesham.

Mr Northey said: “Once we have completed the work next summer, we will be able to walk away knowing that the route is fit for the next 30 to 40 years.”