How East West Rail would benefit Tempsford
East West Rail would make it easier to connect to other parts of the UK and get around the local area with fast connections that are greener for the environment. The new station at Tempsford will be better located to enable a new community to grow, providing access to jobs and days out with friends and family, while encouraging investment in public spaces.
We are working closely with local partners to deliver Local Opportunity Plans that will kickstart growth around the new Tempsford station, offer increased access to opportunities for the local community and regenerate the area.
East West Rail would open up access to the two million-strong jobs market across the region and unlock the area’s huge economic potential, calculated to be worth over £100 billion in additional value every year by 2050. Fast connections would include direct commuter trains to Cambridge to the east, and Milton Keynes and Oxford to the west.
One of our main goals is to foster inclusive growth and to give communities improved access to education, opportunities and skills. The new station at Tempsford will offer a more inclusive transport option, with the new station design providing easy access for good walking, wheeling and those using mobility aids.
EWR would be a new, environmentally sustainable way to travel across the region from Tempsford. It would alleviate the reliance on using cars, reducing emissions with journeys that are better for the environment. Compared to a car, travelling by train can reduce emissions by up to two-thirds and our ambition is to be a net zero carbon railway while delivering a 10% boost to biodiversity. We have already planted more than 150,000 trees along with a number of other wildlife initiatives.
EWR would connect to most of the north-south main lines making it easier to get to the rest of the UK from Tempsford, bringing friends and family closer. With more options and shorter journey times, it will be easier to reach the nation’s most-loved destinations across the UK – enjoy a northern city break in Manchester or a seaside weekend in Brighton.
Easy interchange with other train lines will also provide better connections to UK airports such as Luton, Stansted and Birmingham, making overseas destinations more accessible.
Our proposals will bring two new accessible stations to the area – one at Tempsford and another north of Cambourne.
We have an emerging preference for a route that connects Bedford and Cambridge via a new station at Tempsford, which we refer to as Alignment 1 (Tempsford variant).
Need to Sell Property Scheme
We understand our plans may affect people’s homes and businesses, so we’re supporting them through our new Need to Sell Property Scheme. This will help property owners who have a compelling reason to sell but are only able to do so at a substantially lower value due to the EWR Project. Eligible owners can apply for their property to be purchased at its unaffected market value.
Find out more here.
Why are we proposing this work?
Building a new rail link between Bedford and Cambridge would bring faster and better long-term connectivity across the region. It would open up new journeys, cut travel times, ease congestion on local roads and bring more jobs within reach of local people.
Proposals
At the 2021 consultation we presented a range of possible route alignment options for where the railway line could be located. Discussions with communities and stakeholders, alongside further technical studies, found that a new variation of Alignment 1 – with a station at Tempsford rather than St Neots – offers the best option overall. We refer to this new route as Alignment 1 (Tempsford variant).
A Tempsford station would be better located to enable a new community to grow, including opportunities to improve biodiversity and give more people access to green spaces. There would also be more opportunity at Tempsford to design the railway so that it could be at the centre of the local travel network including good walking, wheeling for those using mobility aids, and cycling routes.
Importantly this new route alignment would also have the least negative impact on the environment and the least visual impact for local communities in Ravensden, Renhold and Roxton, as well as encouraging economic growth in the area.
We intend to take Alignment 1 (Tempsford variant) forward for further surveys, environmental assessment and design development to help us understand how best to minimise impacts and ensure that this option performs as well as possible. We’ll provide further details at the statutory consultation on the design that we propose to include in our application for development consent to enable you to comment on our proposals.
Meet your community engagement team
Here at EWR Co, we’re passionate about hearing what local representatives and their communities think about East West Rail. It means we can work together as we build a successful project that will deliver shorter journey times, lower transport costs and ease pressure on local roads while bringing people closer to the things that matter most – jobs, friends and family.
Meet your Community Engagement Manager, Gail Buckland and your Local Representatives Groups Engagement Manager, Sarah Jacobs.
We’ve set up 15 Local Representatives Groups in areas along the EWR route. Head over to our community hub where you can find out more, including details of our events.
Community hubLatest stories
24.05.24
Update following government announcement
22.05.24
New EWR Co CEO announced
15.05.24
Working with land and property owners along the route
27.03.24
Nine community conversation events scheduled ahead of first stage of statutory consultation
18.03.24
East West Rail’s potential perfectly illustrated by success of reopened railway
06.02.24
Preparing for DCO (Development Consent Order)
We're delivering EWR over several stages. This includes:
- Upgrading an existing section of railway between Oxford and Bicester
- Bringing back a section of railway between Bicester and Bletchley
- Refurbishing existing railway between Bletchley and Bedford
- Building brand new railway infrastructure between Bedford and Cambridge
East West Rail trains are expected to start running between Oxford and Bletchley/Milton Keynes in 2025, with services extending across the route in the coming years – following planning approvals and construction of the new railway.
What's next for this area?
We'll provide further details of our developed proposals for how East West Rail will serve Tempsford at the statutory consultation.