Council boss slams government over rail link refusal

Buckinghamshire Council leader Steven Broadbent said the government was "really short-sighted" for not wanting the Aylesbury spur of East West Rail.

A council leader has said the government was "really short-sighted" for not approving a link to connect the East West Rail route with Aylesbury.

Conservative Steven Broadbent from Buckinghamshire Council said they had "refused to give us that connection" despite £2.5bn being allocated to the project in the latest Spending Review.

However, Natalie Wheble, from EW Rail, said the link was "not in scope at the moment" but added it was "making sure the design does not prevent it" if the business case changed.

The Department for Transport said they were "committed to delivering transport infrastructure that will boost growth across the country" but that "all schemes must maximise value for money".

Aylesbury politicians have been calling for a spur from Aylesbury to the new Winslow station to be a part of East West Rail for years

The first part of the line, between Oxford and Milton Keynes, was due to open later this year. It will eventually reach Cambridge.

Broadbent is the latest in a line of politicians who called for Aylesbury to be linked via the newly built Winslow station.

In 2021, the town's former Conservative MP, Rob Butler, secured an Adjournment debate to discuss the spur.

Last November, the Labour MP for Aylesbury, Laura Kyrke-Smith, confirmed she had raised the issue with the Transport Secretary. She said the spur "would bring great economic and social benefit to Aylesbury, to the region and beyond".

Now Broadbent told the BBC that £15bn of transport-related money had been "literally been carved for the Midlands and the North" in the government's review, while "we are sitting here in Aylesbury and other towns which were heavily congested".

He urged the government to give the county "some of that funding in order for our infrastructure to be upgraded".

He added that "at the moment you have to jump in the car or take a bus" if you want to travel from Aylesbury to Winslow.

Natalie Wheble from East West Rail said the Aylesbury spur of the line "was not in scope at the moment"

Natalie Wheble, director of communications at East West Rail, spoke with Andy Collins on the BBC Three Counties Radio breakfast show.

She said the government set out where they wanted the rail line to go based on a business case and "at the moment, the Aylesbury spur is not in there".

She added that "we understand the appetite [for the spur] and what we are doing is making sure we are not preventing it from happening" if the business case changes.

She also said that the £2.5bn allocated to the project by the government would enable them "to operate on a daily basis during the spending review period, so it is not extra money".