East West Rail

East West Rail

Location	Oxfordshire Buckinghamshire Bedfordshire Cambridgeshire
Proposer	East West Main Line Partnership
Project website	eastwestrail.co.uk
Status	Oxford–Bedford: Under construction Bedford–Cambridge: Planned
Type	Railway
Cost estimate	£1.085 billion (Bicester–Bedford plus Aylesbury spur)[1]
Completion date	Oxford–Bletchley/Milton Keynes: 2025[2][3] Bedford–Cambridge: "early 2030s"[3]

v t e East West Rail
Legend
Cherwell Valley line to Didcot & Reading Oxford Cherwell Valley line to Banbury Oxford Parkway Islip Bicester Military Rly Bicester Village Western Section Phase 1 Phase 2 Chiltern Mainline HS2 to Euston HS2 to Birmingham Interchange London–Aylesbury line to Marylebone Aylesbury Aylesbury Vale Parkway Winslow West Coast Main Line to Euston Bletchley Flyover Bletchley Fenny Stratford Milton Keynes Central Bow Brickhill West Coast Main Line to Glasgow Central Woburn Sands Aspley Guise Ridgmont Not all stations between Bletchley and Bedford are expected to be served by East West Rail services[4] Lidlington Millbrook Stewartby Kempston Hardwick Midland Main Line to St Pancras Bedford St Johns Bedford Western Section Central Section Midland Main Line to Sheffield East Coast Main Line to Sandy & King's Cross Tempsford or St Neots South [nb 1] East Coast Main Line to St Neots & Edinburgh Cambourne Cambridge line to Hitchin West Anglia Main Line to Liverpool Street Cambridge South[nb 2] Cambridge Central Section Eastern Section Dullingham Cambridge North Newmarket Waterbeach Ipswich–Ely line (not to be used by EWR) Kennett Ely Bury St Edmunds Ely–Peterborough line Fen Line to King's Lynn Thurston Shippea Hill Lakenheath Elmswell Brandon Thetford Not all stations between Cambridge and Great Yarmouth are expected to be served by East West Rail services[4] Harling Road Eccles Road Attleborough Spooner Row Wymondham Great Eastern Main Line (not to be used by EWR) Stowmarket Needham Market Norwich East Suffolk line to Felixstowe branch line Bittern Line Ipswich Brundall Gardens Mayflower line to Harwich Town Brundall Manningtree Great Eastern Main Line Lingwood Acle Great Yarmouth
^ New station with location and final name to be decided ^ New station not directly linked to EWR scheme

East West Rail is a strategic aim to establish a new main line railway between East Anglia and South Wales.^[5][6] The immediate plan is to build (or rebuild) a line linking Oxford and Cambridge via Bicester, Milton Keynes (at Bletchley) and Bedford, largely using the trackbed of the former Varsity Line. Thus it provides a potential route between any or all of the Great Western, Cotswold, Chiltern, West Coast, Midland, East Coast, West Anglia and Great Eastern main lines, avoiding London. The new line will provide a route for future services between Southampton Central or Swansea and Ipswich or Norwich, using existing onward lines. The government approved the western section (from Oxford to Bedford) in November 2011,^[7] with completion of the section to Bletchley expected^[a] by 2025, and services to Bedford to run by 2030.^[8][3]

The line was initially promoted (as the East West Rail Link) by the East-West Rail Consortium, a consortium of local authorities and interested bodies along the route. In 2013 it was adopted by the Department for Transport and, in late 2017, the government announced that it would be delivered by a quango, the East West Railway Company (rather than Network Rail).^[9]

The plan is divided into three sections:

• "Western section" from Oxford to Bedford on the former Varsity Line route, taking advantage of the recently reconstructed Oxford-Bicester line and the existing Bletchley–Bedford Marston Vale line (leaving just Bicester–Bletchley to be rebuilt).^[10]
  • the original scope of this section included a branch line to Aylesbury:^[10] In May 2023, the EWR Company announced that this branch was not being funded.^[11]
• "Central section" from Bedford to Cambridge over a substantially new alignment; in May 2023, the Company announced its preferred route for statutory consultation.
• "Eastern section" from Cambridge to Norwich, Felixstowe and Ipswich on existing lines.

Phase 1 of the western section, the segment from Oxford via Bicester Village to the junction with the Chiltern Main Line, has been operational since December 2016. On 5 February 2020, the Department for Transport made the Transport and Works Act Order for Phase 2 of the western section. In April 2020, engineering work began on the route of the Bicester–Bletchley segment. Trackwork was completed in early 2024;^[3] testing is in progress.

The eastern section, Bedford to Cambridge and Western improvements are categorised as a nationally significant infrastructure project.^[12]

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