Consultation FAQs
- Upgrading the existing railway between Oxford and Bedford.
- Constructing a new railway between Bedford and Cambridge.
- A range of route-wide considerations, including how we operate and deliver the railway. These topics are described in Chapters 5 and 6 in the Consultation Document and include proposals for powering the trains – including important updates on electrification – and other key issues like our approach to freight, the environment and sustainability, Public Rights of Way and highways, homes, land and property and construction.
- Plans for specific areas along the route between Oxford and Cambridge. These are split into eight route sections in the Consultation Document (Chapters 8-16) that contain an overview of what we are proposing and why, how we have considered the environment, and more detailed information about the proposals for specific locations.
- The Consultation Document, which provides an overview of our proposals.
- A guide to the Consultation Document providing guidance on how to navigate the Consultation Document and respond to the consultation.
- A Technical Report with more detailed information about our proposals and how they have been developed.
- An Environmental Update Report that provides initial information about potential environmental effects.
- A Transport Update Report with initial information about the potential transport impacts from the project.
- Maps, plans and visualisations that show the proposed route alignment, the land that would be required for the project, and illustrations of what some of the main features of the railway could look like.
- Factsheets with more information about key elements of the proposed railway.
- Completing the consultation feedback form online here.
- Emailing a copy of the feedback form to [email protected].
- Sending a copy of the feedback form to Freepost EAST WEST RAIL.
- Handing in a copy of the feedback form at a consultation event.
- 2 x Oxford to Milton Keynes services in each direction per hour
- 2 x Oxford to Cambridge services in each direction per hour
- 2 x Stewartby to Cambridge service in each direction per hour
- 1 x Bletchley to Bedford service in either direction per hour
- 2 x Oxford to Milton Keynes services in each direction per hour
- 2 x Oxford to Cambridge services in each direction per hour
- 1 x Stewartby to Cambridge service in each direction per hour
- 1 x Bletchley to Cambridge service in each direction per hour
- Up to two new freight services per day in each direction from Felixstowe via Cambridge through to Oxford and beyond.
- Up to two new freight services per day in each direction from Southampton via Oxford, Bletchley and onto the West Coast Main Line once the first phase of East West Rail is complete.
- Up to ten additional freight services per day in each direction between Oxford and Milton Keynes – connecting onto the West Coast Main Line – once East West Rail is fully operational.
East West Rail is a new rail link that would connect communities between Oxford, Milton Keynes, Bedford and Cambridge by making it easier, faster and more affordable to get around the region.
For more than 30 years, councillors and business leaders from across the region have been calling to restore a rail link connecting Oxford and Cambridge – and East West Rail is a once in a generation opportunity to reintroduce rail connectivity in the region by:
The Department for Transport created the East West Railway Company (EWR Co) in 2018 to develop plans for a new railway between Oxford and Cambridge. EWR Co is responsible for developing, designing and delivering the new railway.
By making it easier, faster and more affordable to get around the region, the new railway will open up new journeys, cut travel times on public transport, ease congestion on local roads and bring more jobs within reach of people living locally.
The vibrant communities between Oxford, Milton Keynes, Bedford and Cambridge blend beautiful landscapes and a rich cultural heritage with globally renowned centres of education, life sciences, technology and an increasingly dynamic business scene.
While it’s a fantastic place to live and work, the lack of good east-west transport links limits the ability for local residents to enjoy everything the area has to offer.
From easier commutes to days out with friends and family, East West Rail would make it easier to reach the things that matter to you most, bringing a range of benefits to local communities and the UK more broadly.
You can read more about the benefits of East West Rail in Chapter 4 of the Consultation Document.
Listening to and understanding the views of people living and working in the communities EWR would serve is fundamental to the way this new rail connection will be designed, built and operated. We’re carrying out a non-statutory consultation for 10 weeks from 14 November 2024 to 24 January 2025 to share emerging plans and obtain feedback on the early designs, including areas where we are considering options.
We want to hear from local communities, businesses and people who work in the area, and people whose homes or properties could be affected by the proposals. We will carefully consider the feedback we receive as we continue to finalise plans for the railway.
Feedback from this consultation will be considered as part of ongoing design development to help to inform our plans, which we will then present at our statutory consultation. We will then finalise our proposals and submit our application for a Development Consent Order (DCO), which would grant consent to build and operate the new railway between Bedford and Cambridge, as well as the other upgrades between Oxford and Bedford to deliver the full proposed EWR service.
This is the third public consultation on EWR (following on from our consultation on route options held in 2019 and route alignment options in 2021) and is an opportunity for us to gather informed feedback from local communities and stakeholders on updated proposals for EWR. Each consultation gives people the chance to provide feedback to help shape our proposals as they progress.
The updated proposals for EWR include:
More information is available in our Consultation Document – and a shorter overview is available in our Guide to consultation.
The proposed new railway between Bedford and Cambridge has been designated as a project of national significance. This means we will apply to the Secretary of State for Transport for a Development Consent Order (DCO), which would grant consent to build and operate the new railway between Bedford and Cambridge and the additional upgrades to the existing railway between Oxford and Bedford.
As part of the pre-application stage of the DCO process, we are consulting on our proposals. Building on the consultations held in 2019 and 2021, we intend to carry out two further consultations before applying for development consent: this non-statutory consultation and a statutory consultation that we plan to hold next year. We believe carrying out two further rounds of consultation will maximise the opportunity to share our developing proposals, gather people’s feedback and take this into account as we finalise our proposals for the railway.
Once we have completed all of our consultation and finalised our proposals, we will prepare and submit our DCO application to the Planning Inspectorate, which processes applications on behalf of the Secretary of State. Following the examination into the DCO application, the Planning Inspectorate will make a recommendation to the Secretary of State who will decide whether development consent should be granted.
More information about this consultation and the planning process for a DCO application can be found in Section 4.4 of the Consultation Document.
We have published a range of consultation materials as part of this consultation on our consultation webpage, including:
We are also holding a series of in-person consultation events across the route. At each event you can review the updated proposals, talk to members of our team, ask questions and submit your feedback.
If you can't attend an event in person, our three online events will give you a chance to understand more about our proposals and ask questions.
To find out when a consultation event is happening near you, please visit eastwestrail.co.uk/consultation2024
A feedback form, which contains questions about the proposals, is available in both paper and online versions for you to share your views. You can respond to the consultation by:
For further information on materials in accessible formats or alternative languages, or to request a paper copy of the feedback form, please call us on 0330 134 0067, or email us at [email protected].
Please make sure you share your views with us before the closing date of 24 January 2025.
Train services are being introduced in three phases – which we refer to as ‘Connection Stages’. Once all three Connection Stages are completed and all passenger services are running between Oxford and Cambridge, we are planning to provide the following service pattern, noting a variation depending on the choice and location of stations on the Marston Vale Line (MVL):
Service pattern with MVL Existing Stations Option:
Service pattern with MVL Consolidated Stations Option:
We anticipate that passenger services would run between 6am and midnight from Monday to Thursday, between 6am to 1am on Friday and Saturday, and between 7am to 11pm on Sunday.
You can read more about the proposed service pattern for EWR, including how it has changed since the Route Update Announcement in May 2023, in Chapter 5 of the Consultation Document.
EWR Co has announced plans for electrification, confirming its preference for green traction power in the form of discontinuous electrification with hybrid battery-electric trains.
As well as reducing carbon emissions, discontinuous electrification would mean overhead lines would only need to be installed along some sections of the route, which would reduce disruption to existing structures and potentially reduce visual impacts in more sensitive locations on the new railway. This option would also cost less than full electrification and would need less land for things such as mast foundations.
More information about our plans for powering the trains can be found in our factsheet on powering the trains and in Chapter 5 of the Consultation Document.
When we launched this consultation, we wrote to those we believe have an interest in land or property that is within the proposed Project boundary (also known as the ‘draft Order Limits’) at this stage. As the Project continues to progress, the list of landowners whose land could be directly affected by the Project may change . As we continue to develop the designs for EWR, we are contacting people whose land and property could potentially be affected
If you have received a letter from us about your land or property and you have any questions, you can contact the Land and Property team by phone on 0330 838 7583, or you can email us at [email protected].
You can also read about how we are working with people directly affected by the EWR plans on the Land and Property page of our website and in our factsheet Our Approach to Land and Landowners.
East West Rail’s main purpose is to be a passenger service. However, some freight services already run on some sections of our route, and the Government has asked us to consider how we can maintain these and plan for increased future freight demand to enable wider economic growth. These considerations need to be balanced against what level of investment would be needed and the impact to local communities. Our current proposals for East West Rail (without additional investment beyond the project) would allow for:
You can read more in our factsheet on Freight, and in Chapter 5 of the Consultation Document.
Protecting the environment is never an afterthought – it’s a fundamental part of our decision-making. At each stage of planning and developing East West Rail we work to ensure nature has a proper place in our plans – and we’ve pledged an ambitious target of achieving a 10% biodiversity net gain along the route. You can see more about work we’ve already delivered to achieve biodiversity net gain here.
We’re listening to and working closely with local community groups, environmental bodies and local highway and planning authorities to assess the potential environmental impacts of our plans on areas such as environmentally important sites and priority habitats. This includes carrying out surveys to increase our understanding of potential impacts on nature and species, which has helped design proposals that avoid environmental impacts, for example by planning the alignment of the railway to avoid sensitive sites and habitats.
We recognise that we won’t be able to avoid impacts altogether and will continue to explore how best to reduce those impacts by including mitigation measures in our early designs, like noise barriers or bunds; hedgerow improvements or woodland creation; green bridges to allow bats to pass safely from one side of the new railway line to the other; and landscaping areas to create screening, for example by creating new woodland.
This and other types of mitigation, will continue to be developed between now and when we submit our application for a Development Consent Order. You can read more in our factsheets and other documentation:
More detail is also available in Chapter 6 of the Consultation Document and more technical information is available in the Environmental Update Report published as part of this consultation.
We recognise that how we construct and build the railway can be a concern for local communities and businesses. This is an issue that we take very seriously. We are committed to working hard to reduce, mitigate or - where we can - eliminate disruption for people at every stage of the Project, from planning through to our day-to-day operations.
As part of our DCO application, we will develop and submit a draft Code of Construction Practice (CoCP), which will set out a range of mitigation measures and principles which contractors would be required to follow when building the project, including engaging with stakeholders and the community.
You can read more in our factsheets: Our Approach to Construction Management, and in Chapter 6 of the Consultation Document [link].
To design deliver and operate an inclusive railway, we are embedding a range of equality, diversity and inclusion best practice measures into our assessments and decision making.
We will prepare and submit an Equality Impact Assessment as part of our application for a Development Consent Order. This is a tool that will help us to understand and assess the likely effects of our proposals on people who are protected under the Equality Act.
We are taking a human-centred approach to design so that we develop our scheme with the passengers who are going to use it at the front of our minds. That’s why we launched an Accessibility Advisory Panel early in the design process to meet regularly with local people who have lived experiences of disability to help us understand barriers to travel and identify opportunities for more inclusive travel.
You can read more in our factsheets on Our Approach to Accessibility and Inclusion and Inclusion and Equality Impact Assessment.
At all stages of planning for East West Rail, we are committed to delivering the best value for taxpayers and returning the most benefit for every pound spent. Cost and overall affordability are key criteria used to refine our plans and inform our decision-making.
Information about costs – including how these have changed since the route update announcement in 2023 – is provided in in our factsheet on Capital Costs.
Construction is complete on the first phase of EWR, and we have already run the first test to train to make sure we are ready for passenger services. The first Oxford to Milton Keynes trains will run from the second half of 2025 onwards.
Connection Stage 2 is the next phase to move into construction, in the second half of this decade, with services running from Oxford to Bedford from 2030.
For Connection Stage 3, particularly the new-build section of railway, main construction won’t start until the DCO has been approved. We envisage that the first services all the way to Cambridge will run during the mid 2030s.
Consultation on the emerging construction programme will be undertaken with stakeholders, local authorities and the community at key stages, including the statutory consultation.
You can read about what’s involved in each stage of the planning process in our DCO process factsheet.