East-West Rail: Bicester to Bletchley phase 'on time'

Two railway stations are being built, including this one at Bletchley in Buckinghamshire on a partly rebuilt mid-century viaduct

The second section of a £5bn rail link is on time and on budget, according to the company behind it.

Work began on the 21-mile (33km) £760m Bicester to Bletchley stretch of the Oxford to Cambridge East-West Rail project in 2020.

It will include two new stations, new bridges, track-laying and partly rebuilding a viaduct.

East-West Rail Company Alliance director Mark Cuzner said it was "on programme" to finish in 2024.

The project aims to connect the university cities of Cambridge and Oxford by the end of the decade.

The first section to upgrade the railway between Oxford and Bicester was completed in 2016.

The preferred route for the Bedford to Cambridge section would involve the construction of a new track using a southern approach into Cambridge.

The company says it is still going through responses to a consultation which closed last June.

Mark Cuzner said building a railway more than 21 miles long (30km) through rural communities was "a logistical challenge"

Mr Cuzens said: "Obviously we've come through Covid, but in terms of this section of the railway, because it was disused, a lot of the railway track and the footprint of the railway had been taken over by natural habitat."

"Many rare" native species such as bats and great crested newts had to be "treated with great care", he said.

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The East-West Rail Company believes the rail link will provide a £1.1bn boost to the economy.

He said: "For anyone who's travelled east to west across [the] country, you realise rail infrastructure is not really there, so making that link from Oxford through to Cambridge - and hopefully beyond in future years - will be really important."

Kevin Bell said the new Winslow station was being made from 614 pieces constructed off-site in a factory and assembled on location

The project will reinstate a railway station at Winslow, Buckinghamshire - its Victorian station was closed in the 1960s.

East-West Rail Alliance project engineer Kevin Bell said: "Once this is operational, it will allow travel into Milton Keynes and over to Oxford and allow passengers to pick up north-south lines they would otherwise have had to make lengthy car journeys to catch."

The relocated station will have a 365-space carpark, a ticket office, coffee shop, cycle shelters, bus stands and a taxi rank.

East-West Rail Company is holding a series of public events in Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes to explain the project to residents until 20 July.

The section between Bicester, Oxfordshire, and Bletchley is reusing an old railway line