About East West Rail and our consultation
East West Rail would connect communities between Oxford, Milton Keynes, Bedford and Cambridge, supporting sustainable economic growth in the area. The new railway would make it easier to reach jobs, education, public services and days out with family and friends.
You’re invited to take part in our consultation to share your feedback on our proposals for the new railway.
This page will be updated with consultation material from 14 November.
The consultation will be open from 14 November 2024 to 24 January 2025.
Your feedback is crucial to help us create a railway that will work for communities.
There are several ways you can get involved in our consultation:
• Attend our in-person or online events
• Visit a virtual consultation room
• View our proposals online and at information points
• Fill in a feedback form
Find out moreThe benefits of East West Rail
For more than 30 years, councillors and business leaders from across the region have been calling for a rail link connecting Oxford and Cambridge.
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 combine beautiful landscapes and a rich cultural heritage with world-famous centres of education, life sciences, technology and an increasingly dynamic business scene.
However, the lack of good east-west transport connections makes it harder for residents to make the most of everything the region has to offer. From faster commutes to days out with friends and family, EWR would make it easier to reach the things that matter most, bringing a range of benefits to communities between Oxford and Cambridge, and across the UK more broadly, including:
East-west public transport is currently limited to a coach service, which takes 1 hour 50 minutes between Oxford and Milton Keynes at peak times, and the bus journey between Bedford to Cambridge, which takes up to 1 hour 30 minutes. With East West Rail, these journey times could be cut to under 45 minutes from Oxford to Milton Keynes, and could take 35 minutes between Bedford and Cambridge.
East West Rail could take you from Oxford to Cambridge via Bedford, Bicester and Bletchley in approximately 1 hour 35 minutes, with no need to change in London.
East West Rail would bring more people within commuting distance of jobs in the region, making it easier to get to employment centres whilst also boosting jobs in local areas.
Despite being a short distance apart, journeys from places such as Milton Keynes and Bedford to Oxford and Cambridge can take a long time because of congested roads and the lack of public transport. By offering rail travel as an alternative, East West Rail would help to ease traffic on local roads and provide a reliable, fast and more sustainable public transport option for people. The railway also creates the potential to reduce the number of lorries going through the area’s towns and villages.
East West Rail aims to be a net zero passenger railway. The railway would reduce local people's reliance on private cars and would lead to cleaner air and fewer emissions. Compared to a car journey, travelling by train can reduce emissions by up to two thirds.
Growth in Oxford and Cambridge is constrained. Connecting them with the fast-growing and high potential towns and cities in between, like Milton Keynes and Bedford, would make places more appealing for people wanting to start and grow all types of businesses.
Just as East West Rail will bring people closer to jobs, it would also bring businesses closer to their supply chains, research sectors, competitors and other sectors. This provides a unique opportunity in the region and the UK for businesses to develop in dynamic ecosystems and clusters. Such vibrant business ecosystems already exist in pockets, such as the Cambridge Biomedical Campus and the Oxford Science Park. East West Rail would make it possible at scale, which would attract more businesses into the region and investment into the country by offering unrivalled collaboration and innovation opportunities, which will lead to fresh ideas, higher productivity and new spin-outs.
The railway would help attract and retain the best talent in the region. It currently takes nearly an hour to travel just 9 miles from Cambourne to Cambridge in the morning rush-hour, but East West Rail could reduce this to 15 minutes. Bedford and Cambridge would be just 35 minutes apart, so East West Rail could expand the number of people within commuting distance of jobs in the region, giving the region’s businesses and innovators access to a much bigger pool of people to hire from as they grow.
East West Rail would connect to most of the UK’s north-south main lines making it easier to get to the rest of the UK, opening up new journeys for local communities. Friends, family and days out would all be within easy reach, as would overseas destinations with through better connections to international airports at Luton and Stansted.
How East West Rail is being delivered
The first part of this stage, the link between Oxford and Bicester, is already in place. The work to extend services further north and east to Bletchley and Milton Keynes was given planning consent in 2020 by an order made by the Secretary of State under the Transport and Works Act 1992. Construction is well underway and passenger services will start running from 2025.
Planning consent for these works was also granted by the Transport and Works Act order in 2020.
To complete this work, we will need to apply for a Development Consent Order (DCO), which would grant consent to build the new railway between Bedford and Cambridge, as well as the other upgrades between Oxford and Bedford to deliver the full proposed EWR service.
Guide to our consultation
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 gather feedback on the early designs, including areas where we are considering options.
We will take this feedback into account as we develop the designs in more detail and select preferred options, using your responses to review potential opportunities and inform plans to mitigate the impacts of the project. These will be considered alongside ongoing environmental, economic and technical studies to make sure we’re building the right railway for communities across the whole area.
This is the third 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 obtain 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.
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.
More on the consultation process
The proposed new section of 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, we are consulting on our proposals. We intend to carry out two consultations before applying for development consent: this non-statutory consultation and a statutory consultation that will be held at a later date. We believe carrying out two rounds of consultation will maximise the opportunity to share our 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 the consultation materials which will be available from 14 November.
How to get involved in our consultation
You’re invited to take part in our consultation to share your feedback on our proposals for the new railway. The consultation will be open from 14 November 2024 to 24 January 2025 and your feedback is crucial to help us create a railway that will work for communities.
There are several ways you can get involved in our consultation:
- Attend our in-person events
- Attend our online events
- Visit our virtual consultation room
- View our proposals online and at information points
In-person events
We are 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.
For more information on venue accessibility please click the button below.
Venue accessibility informationWe are holding 16 events during our consultation period which are outlined below.
Oxford, Oxford Town Hall, 19 November 2024, 2pm - 7pm
Bicester, John Paul II Centre, 21 November 2024, 2pm - 7pm
Great Shelford, Shelford Rugby Club, 22 November 2024, 2pm - 7pm
Steeple Claydon, Steeple Claydon Village Hall, 26 November 2024, 2pm - 7pm
Bedford, The Grand Hall, 30 November 2024, 12pm - 5pm
Cambourne, Cambridge Belfry, 3 December 2024, 2pm - 7pm
Lidlington, Lidlington Village Hall, 6 December 2024, 2pm - 7pm
Bedford, Bedford Swan Hotel and Thermal Spa, 9 December 2024, 2pm - 7pm
Wilden, Wilden Village Hall, 11 December 2024, 2pm - 7pm
Tempsford, Stuart Memorial Hall, 13 December 2024, 2pm - 7pm
St Neots, St Neots Town Football Club, 7 January 2025, 2pm - 7pm
Comberton, Comberton Village Hall, 10 January 2025, 2pm - 7pm
Bletchley, Bletchley Masonic Centre, 15 January 2025, 2pm - 7pm
Woburn Sands, The Summerlin Centre, 17 January 2025, 2pm - 7pm
Cambridge, The Clayton Hotel, 18 January 2025, 12pm - 5pm
Cherry Hinton, St Andrews, 21 January 2025, 2pm - 7pm
Online events
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.
Details on how to sign up for the online events will be published here on 14 November. Please note that if you can’t attend, we will email you a link to the recording after the session.
20 November 2024, 2:30pm - 4:30pm
10 December 2024, 6pm - 8pm
9 January 2025, 10am - 12pm
Virtual consultation room
Our virtual consultation room will be open between 14 November 2024 to 24 January 2025.
In addition to the 16 in-person events being held at venues across the region, we have an online consultation room that has been set up to make it easier for everyone to view our plans and have their say on our latest proposals.
Here, you will have easy access to all the documents presented at our public events, including maps, diagrams and all the latest design information.
Information points
Printed consultation materials are available to view at information points along the route, including the Consultation Document, Technical Report, maps, drawings, plans, Environmental Update Report and factsheets. Feedback forms and freepost envelopes will also be available to take away. Details of the information points will be available from 14 November.
How to respond to the consultation
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:
- Completing the consultation feedback form online using the button below. (Available from 14 November 2024)
- 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.
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.
Contact us
We want to make sure everyone can take part in this consultation. If you have any queries or additional requirements, please email us at [email protected] or call 0330 134 0067. If you prefer to return your feedback form by post send it to Freepost EAST WEST RAIL.