RAILFUTURE welcomes the Government’s commitment for the Oxford-Bedford section of East West Rail (EWR) to be built.
Trains will link Oxford and Milton Keynes via Bicester and Bletchley. Connections will serve Aylesbury, Bedford and Northampton.
The scheme promises £6.30 of benefit for every £1 invested.
Railfuture and its predecessors have campaigned for the Oxford-Cambridge line’s reopening since it closed in 1967. Oxfordshire County Council reopened Bicester Town station in 1987 and Islip station in 1988.
Local councils on the route formed the East West Rail Consortium in 1995, which has slowly completed each feasibility study required to rebuild the line.
In 2009 Chiltern Railways boosted the western part of EWR with its plan to build a junction at Bicester, station at Water Eaton and upgrade and double 11 miles of track between Bicester and Oxford.
Alongside Chiltern’s scheme, EWR has to either upgrade, double or replace 44 miles of track between Aylesbury, Bicester and Bedford. Bridges, culverts, drains and foundations may need repairs. However, it is straightforward railway engineering.
The coalition is delaying reopening until 2017, so construction will barely start until after the 2015 General Election.
Nor has the Government promised to reopen the Bedford-Cambridge section, which is vital to attract freight from Felixstowe and Harwich docks off the roads.
Cars create more traffic and emissions, but HGVs do more damage to roads. Rail freight is cost-effective for reducing road repair costs.
Since Southampton-Nuneaton rail capacity improvements were completed in April, freight on the route via Didcot, Oxford and Banbury has increased by a third: equivalent to 300 fewer HGVs per day using the A34.
Travellers and freight customers need EWR before 2017. Contractors need work as soon as possible.
Climate change will not wait until the next Parliament. Railfuture urges the coalition to start EWR sooner and agree to complete it to Cambridge.
Hugh Jaeger, Media officer, Railfuture Thames Valley branch, Park Close, Oxford
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