East West Rail

East West Rail

Map of the full proposed route
Location	Oxfordshire Buckinghamshire Bedfordshire Cambridgeshire
Proposer	East West Main Line Partnership
Project website	eastwestrail.co.uk
Status	Oxford–Bedford: Under construction Bedford–Cambridge: Planned
Type	Railway
Cost estimate	£1.085 billion (Bicester–Bedford plus Aylesbury spur)[1]
Completion date	Oxford–Bletchley/Milton Keynes: 2025[2][3] Bedford–Cambridge: "early 2030s"[3]
OpenStreetMap	16675395

v t e East West Rail
Legend
Cherwell Valley line to Didcot & Reading Oxford Cherwell Valley line to Banbury Oxford Parkway Islip Bicester Military Rly Bicester Village Western Section Phase 1 Phase 2 Chiltern Mainline HS2 to Euston HS2 to Birmingham Interchange London–Aylesbury line to Marylebone Aylesbury Aylesbury Vale Parkway Winslow West Coast Main Line to Euston Bletchley Flyover Bletchley Fenny Stratford Milton Keynes Central Bow Brickhill West Coast Main Line to Glasgow Central Woburn Sands Aspley Guise Ridgmont Not all stations between Bletchley and Bedford are expected to be served by East West Rail services[4] Lidlington Millbrook Stewartby Kempston Hardwick Midland Main Line to St Pancras Bedford St Johns Bedford Western Section Central Section Midland Main Line to Sheffield East Coast Main Line to Sandy & King's Cross Tempsford or St Neots South [nb 1] East Coast Main Line to St Neots & Edinburgh Cambourne Cambridge line to Hitchin West Anglia Main Line to Liverpool Street Cambridge South[nb 2] Cambridge Central Section Eastern Section Dullingham Cambridge North Newmarket Waterbeach Ipswich–Ely line (not to be used by EWR) Kennett Ely Bury St Edmunds Ely–Peterborough line Fen Line to King's Lynn Thurston Shippea Hill Lakenheath Elmswell Brandon Thetford Not all stations between Cambridge and Great Yarmouth are expected to be served by East West Rail services[4] Harling Road Eccles Road Attleborough Spooner Row Wymondham Great Eastern Main Line (not to be used by EWR) Stowmarket Needham Market Norwich East Suffolk line to Felixstowe branch line Bittern Line Ipswich Brundall Gardens Mayflower line to Harwich Town Brundall Manningtree Great Eastern Main Line Lingwood Acle Great Yarmouth
^ New station with location and final name to be decided ^ New station not directly linked to EWR scheme

East West Rail is a strategic aim to establish a new main line railway between East Anglia and Oxfordshire, with potential services as far as Cardiff.^[5][6] The immediate plan is to build (or rebuild) a line linking Oxford and Cambridge via Bicester, Milton Keynes (at Bletchley) and Bedford, largely using the trackbed of the former Varsity Line. Thus it provides a potential route between any or all of the Great Western, Cotswold, Chiltern, West Coast, Midland, East Coast, West Anglia and Great Eastern main lines, avoiding London. The route opens the possibility of future services between Southampton Central or Swansea and Ipswich or Norwich, using existing onward lines. The government approved the western section (between Oxford and Bedford) in November 2011.^[7] The eastern section (east of Cambridge), the new Bedford–Cambridge route and the Oxford–Bedford improvements are categorised as a nationally significant infrastructure project.^[8]

The line was initially promoted (as the East West Rail Link) by the East-West Rail Consortium, a consortium of local authorities and interested bodies along the route. In 2013 it was adopted by the Department for Transport and, in late 2017, the government announced that it would be delivered by a quango, the East West Railway Company, rather than by Network Rail.^[9]

The plan is divided into three sections:

• "Western section" between Oxford and Bedford on the former Varsity Line route, taking advantage of the recently reconstructed Oxford-Bicester line and the existing Bletchley–Bedford Marston Vale line (leaving just Bicester–Bletchley to be rebuilt).^[10]
  • the original scope of this section included a branch line to Aylesbury:^[10] In May 2023, the EWR Company announced that this branch was not being funded.^[11]
• "Central section" from Bedford to Cambridge over a substantially new alignment; in May 2023, the Company announced its preferred route for statutory consultation.
• "Eastern section" from Cambridge to Norwich, Felixstowe and Ipswich on existing lines.

Phase 1 of the western section, the segment from Oxford via Bicester Village to the junction with the Chiltern Main Line, has been operational since December 2016.^[12] In April 2020, engineering work began on the route of the Bicester–Bletchley segment. Trackwork was completed in early 2024;^[3] commercial services between Oxford and Milton Keynes Central are to begin in the latter half of 2025.^[13] Engineering work to bring the Bletchley–Bedford segment up to the same standard is planned for 2025–2030.^[13]