East West Rail: Councillors ask mayor to make alternative routes public

East West Rail is currently under construction in a number of areas

Potential alternative East West Rail routes through Bedfordshire should be made public, councillors said.

The project would link Oxford and Cambridge via a new section of track between Bedford and Cambridge.

Bedford Council previously voted to support "Route E" through the north of town, but the Liberal Democrats said other routes should be made public.

Council officers said that was premature because those routes were still at the draft stage.

The line is being developed by the East West Rail Company, which was created by the government's Department for Transport in 2018 to look at the plans for the Oxford-Cambridge route.

The council previously voted to support "Route E", which would include a new interchange in the Tempsford area.

Bedford's Conservative mayor Tom Wootton, who leads the council, has commissioned consultants to explore alternative routes to the south.

Lib Dem councillor Charles Roydon criticised the Tories for spending residents' money to investigate alternative routes "and yet it won't tell those residents where they are".

A map seen by the BBC shows the other routes running close to places including Shortstown, Elstow and through Priory Country Park.

The proposed Route E between Bedford and Cambridge shows three new railway stations to be built by EWR, including the rebuilding of Bedford St Johns

The matter was raised by Mr Roydon at an Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee when he asked if the map was out for consultation.

"I think our residents deserve to have that information in the public domain so that they know where these proposals might be," he said.

Council officers said there was no public consultation happening at the moment and the draft was still being worked on so it was not appropriate to make it public at this point.

They added they had employed consultants to look at each of those route alignments and judge them against a set of criteria.

They said there would be a colour-coded table that would be available to the public in order to inform decisions when it came to the statutory consultation.

A number of properties in the Poets area of Bedford could be affected by the development of route E

Bedford resident Julia Virdee, who lives in the Poets area, where the rail project could affect her property, has welcomed alternative routes for the line.

"I would like to think the mayor is helping us; I will cling to that, but personally I have little trust in any politician throughout this process," she said.

The mayor, who is directly-elected by all votes in the borough, has been approached for comment.