After the bridge, the open area to the left is Port Meadow, a water meadow bordering the Thames with a Bronze Age round barrow. The former LNWR Buckinghamshire Railway branches away to the north east. The section from Oxford to Bicester has been connected to the Chiltern Main Line by a new chord at Bicester, enabling through trains from Oxford to London Marylebone to run from September 2015. 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.