The bridge over the River Severn was approved for traffic the following year, and trains started running through from Malvern Link to Worcester Shrub Hill station on 17 May 1860.

This was intended to improve reliability, enable non-stop operations and allow an hourly off peak service to run on the line.

[5] A six-week closure of all or part of the line between Oxford and Worcester for preparatory works took place in July and August 2009.

Initial work began in autumn of 2010, with the majority of the second track being relaid between December 2010 and May 2011 when the line was closed at 21.30 from Monday to Thursday.

In March 2011 construction works were started on additional structures and signalling equipment that the new line needed, including three new platforms at Charlbury, Ascott-under-Wychwood and Honeybourne.

[6] The new double track section between Charlbury and Ascott re-opened on 6 June 2011; the line between Oxford and Moreton-in-Marsh having been closed during the previous nine days.

The section between Moreton and Evesham reopened as double track on 22 August 2011 with the line closed for the preceding two weeks.

[7] The line was closed from 16 to 25 November 2018, between Moreton-In-Marsh and Worcester Shrub Hill, so that platforms could be extended to accommodate Class 800 trains.

About 220 yards (200 m) north of the station, the line crosses the Sheepwash Channel which links the Castle Mill Stream and Oxford Canal with the River Thames.

The built up area east of the railway, visible across the Oxford Canal, is Jericho, a district which originated as lodgings outside the city walls where travellers could rest if they arrived after the gates were locked.

Proposals exist for re-opening the whole line and are included in the Draft Milton Keynes & South Midlands Sub-Regional Strategy, but there are many planning and funding matters to be resolved.

The line passes under the viaduct carrying the A34 Oxford Western Bypass and 100 yards (91 m) further under the A40 road linking London and Fishguard.

Building the line through Combe was difficult with several deep cuttings, four crossings of the Evenlode, and the diversion of a length of the river.

The woodlands south west of the park are the remains of Wychwood Forest named after the Hwicce, one of the Anglo-Saxon peoples of Britain.

Charlbury station is the start of the redoubled track and is first stop for faster trains over the line and retains its original Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway clapperboard building.

Sir Peter Parker lived nearby at Minster Lovell and was a regular user of Charlbury station while chairman of the British Railways Board (1976 to 1983).

The patronage of the head of the organisation may have helped to save the line at a time when the Serpell Report was calling for more rail closures.

[16] This is section of track has a maximum speed of 100 mph (160 km/h)[17] The line is now heading south-west and the site of Ascot d'Oilly Castle is to the north-west as the train enters Ascott-under-Wychwood.

Few trains call at Ascott-under-Wychwood station, but there is a signal box controlling the level crossing and the points that were formerly the end of the single track section from Wolvercot Junction.

The Oxfordshire Way which has been close to the railway since Akeman Street now turns west to Bourton-on-the-Water but it is replaced by another long-distance footpath, the Diamond Way.

At Moreton-in-Marsh the line crosses the course of another major Roman road, the Fosse Way which linked Isca Dumnoniorum (Exeter) and Lindum Colonia (Lincoln).

The large country house to the west is Northwick Park, former home of Edward Spencer-Churchill and site of a United States Army hospital during World War II and afterwards a centre for Polish refugees.

The line becomes single track again about 1 mile (1.6 km) west of Evesham and then crosses the River Avon twice more and follows it towards Pershore.

The busiest station served exclusively by Great Western Railway's Cotswold Line services is Moreton-in-Marsh, followed by Hanborough.

[21] [1] The line features in two notable poems: "Adlestrop" by Edward Thomas and "Pershore Station, or A Liverish Journey First Class" by John Betjeman.