East West Rail funding go-ahead
Although it was expected, £760 million of funding has now been confirmed to build the Western Section of the East West Railway scheme.
THE Department for Transport announced on January 25 that £760 million is to be made available to complete the Western section of the East West Railway between Bicester and Bletchley.
The development plan separates the full route into three sections – Western, Central and Eastern – that will eventually provide services from Oxford to Cambridge and beyond, and each section has very different characteristics.
The first part of the Oxford to Bedford Western section has already been completed as part of Chiltern Railways' initiative to provide direct trains between Marylebone and Oxford, which began running at the end of 2016. This required a new chord to be built at Bicester Town to access the Chiltern Main Line via Princes Risborough and High Wycombe to Northolt Junction and Marylebone.
Enabling work for the next stage of the Western Section between Bicester and Bletchley has already started following the approval of Network
Rail's Transport and Works Act Order application in February 2020, which granted permission for the restoration and upgrade of the line east of Bicester, which is out of use but the trackbed has been protected.
The proposed train service will provide two trains per hour between Oxford and Milton Keynes via Bletchley, and one train per hour between Oxford and Bedford that will incorporate the existing stopping service between Bletchley and Bedford. There will also be an hourly service between Milton Keynes and Aylesbury, with the latter route diverging at Claydon Junction.
There is to be a reopened station at Winslow and alterations to the layout at Bletchley to prevent conflicting movements, where work includes rebuilding the flyover across the West Coast Main Line by replacing most of the original concrete sections.
CENTRAL SECTION
The line between Bletchley and Bedford continues in use and will also be upgraded, but a new alignment will be needed for EWR's Central section from Bedford to Cambridge. The line originally ran via Sandy, but there has been significant building on the former trackbed and the use of space at Sandy to install a widened East Coast Main Line in the station area.
In the years since the line east of Bedford closed, new settlements have been created in Cambridgeshire, which has seen a large population expansion. As a result, alternative route corridors have been proposed that would provide access to rail services at Cambourne, where significant housing development has already taken place and further developments are planned. A new station, Bedford South, is also considered among relevant options.
The intended route has been finalised after consultation and includes a new East Coast Main Line interchange station in the Tempsford area, south of St Neots, and the use of a new alignment that will serve Cambourne before joining the Hitchin to Cambridge branch in the Foxton area.
EASTERN VIEW
EWR's Eastern section will reflect the development of existing local lines that are largely rural in nature, with an aspiration for improved journey times to attract greater use of the routes between Cambridge, Norwich and Ipswich.
It was the original intention to electrify the route, and this was included in plans for an electric spine for freight use that would have seen overhead catenary provided between Southampton and Oxford to connect with the new infrastructure.
Electrification is not now included in the specification, and a procurement process has started for 14 three-car diesel units to provide the required rolling stock, with a view that hybrid battery or hydrogen-powered trains will be available in the future.
A procurement process has started for 14 three-car diesel units