East West Rail

East West Rail is building a railway from before Oxford to after Cambridge. Their first consultation event is in Oxford on Tuesday 19 November 2024, then in Bicester on Thursday 21 November.

There is a lot of information on East West Rail Consultation 2024. As a Blackbird Leys Parish Councillor I went to a Local Representative Group presentation last week. Here are some highlights of what's happening and some initial points of interest.

You can respond online or go to one of their events to get your questions answered. In Oxfordshire, go to Oxford Town Hall on Tuesday 19 November 1400-1900 or St John Paul Centre, Bicester on Thursday 21 November 1400-1900.

Oxfordshire

East West Rail have already run test trains on the line from Oxford to Bletchley.

So the questions on this part of the route are mainly about how they will run the service and access to and across the line.

From some time on 2025, there will be 2 trains an hour from Oxford to Milton Keynes. Once the route is complete, there will be another 2 trains an hour to Cambridge. We will no longer need to take 4 hour bus journeys to get there, or go via London.

Rather than leave trains standing in Oxford, they will take them to Cowley or Didcot then turn them around there. That will save having to build extra platforms in Oxford station. I would like them to come along the Cowley branch line, picking up passengers from the Oxford Science Park and from the Tesco superstore in Blackbird Leys and the industrial area along Garsington Road.

In Bicester they plan to close the level crossing on London Road east of Bicester Village station. Otherwise the gates would be closed for 32 minutes each hour for Chiltern and East West Rail trains. They are consulting on a foot and cycle bridge and diversions using existing roads with some junction improvements.

Bletchley to Bedford

This section goes along the route of the Marston Vale line, currently run by the London Northwestern Railway. Apart from upgrading the track and moving some stations, East West Rail are considering two options when running trains along the line:

1. Keep all the stations, run a slow service along the Marston Vale line and 2 fast trains/hour missing some of the stations from Oxford to Bedford and then Cambridge. Another two trains/hour would go from Stewartby to Cambridge.
2. Close some of the stations, then run 2 trains/hour Oxford to Cambridge and 2 trains/hour Bletchley to Cambridge.

In either case, the plan is to run East-West Rail trains from 2030.

Bedford to Cambridge

This will be all new track, as the old track was removed to create a busway. The plan is to go from Bedford to Tempsford (south of St Neots), NE to Cambourne, SE to join the Royston line then come to Cambridge via Cambridge South. The trains will then travel empty along the Newmarket line to reverse in Cherry Hinton.

The consultation in this part will be all about route changes, road diversions and compensations for land owners and biodiversity.

Overarching issues

Across the whole line, East West Rail is consulting on several aspects of its plan. In parallel with this public consultation, it is running technical studies on environmental impacts, traffic and transport impacts and design. Issues to consider include:

1. Powering the trains. The Conservative Government expected diesel trains. Now East West Rail may be allowed to electrify the route. They are proposing discontinous electrification, with overhead cables running long enough to recharge batteries on the trains. Will that provide enough power for all the trains on the line? Where will they wires go?
2. Freight services along the line. East West Rail are assuming there will be only slow growth of freight from their current levels. But the route will make it possible for freight from Southampton docks to avoid London when heading east, particularly if bi-mode engines could use electric power along the line.
3. Protecting nature. East West Rail have plans to set up areas to compensate for loss of nature, but how well will they minimise losses or make the route and stations nature friendly?
4. Access to stations. There are new stations to be built. But some of the proposals seem half-hearted in promoting accessible transport, with multistorey car parks and some bicycle racks outside. In the presentation, I had not seen any designs that put car parks in parkway stations and build Dutch-style bicycle garages in the town centre stations.
5. Construction. There will be disruption, although in some places they are arranging delivery of goods by rail (e.g. near St. Neots) and elsewhere they are diverting roads around the construction.

What you can do

As an individual, you can respond to the consultation at one of their events and online.

You can also help local Green Parties along the line prepare their responses. Please contact them or leave comments below. We need to understand what the impacts will be, both positive and negative in different places, contributing your local or specialist knowledge. The local Green Parties are Oxfordshire, Aylesbury Vale, Milton Keynes, Luton and Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire.

If you prefer to watch videos instead of reading documents, below is last week's 50 minute presentation from East West Rail.