East West Rail: Could a new rail link 'tear apart' a village?

Tempsford had a station on the East Coast Mainline until it closed to passengers in 1956. This is how Station Road looked in the 1930s.

A new £5bn railway line connecting Cambridge and Oxford will transform much of the area between the two university cities. It could see one Bedfordshire village grow from a population of about 600 to more than 44,000. What would that change mean for people living there and how do they feel about it?

Tempsford is proud of its history. From the Battle of Tempsford in 917 when Edward the Elder saw off the Danes, to RAF Tempsford being used as a staging post for secret airborne missions into occupied Europe in the 1940s.

Some villagers are preparing for a new battle following confirmation that it have a station in the confirmed route of East West Rail, although no exact time scales for development have been announced.

Steve Cooney is the village's unofficial historian. He has been collecting documents, photographs and maps about the village since the 1990s and opened Tempsford Museum and Archives 10 years ago.

Steve Cooney fears the scale of new housing that could come with the station might be "devastating" for Tempsford

Mr Cooney, 63, said the rail link might be "good, in many respects" but the new housing that could come alongside it is "just going to tear our village apart".

Standing among the museum's exhibits – including an antique horse-drawn fire engine and a World War Two-era air raid siren – he said he fears the RAF base will be targeted for development. "I think it will be devastating for our village," he added.

The exhibits at Tempsford Museum & Archives include a horse-drawn fire engine and photographs of secret agents who flew from the village's airstrip in World War Two

Tempsford used to have a station on the East Coast Mainline, which runs to the east of the village.

Teacher Clare Lawrence, 69, has lived in the old station master's house since the 1980s but does not support the new railway.

"The railway is not in any way to do with local people, helping us," she said. "Very few people need to get to Cambridge."

Clare Lawrence does not believe a new station would benefit people who currently live in Tempsford

For her, it is a "ruse" to justify new housing. The plans, which she says have been in the pipeline for years, are creating "anxiety for those of us who can see that a whole way of life is going to be uprooted".

David Sutton, who chairs the parish council but spoke as a village resident, said: "I'm not against actually what I'd refer to as sustainable development.

"The village does need to grow a little, but be completely engulfed in a new town is a different story," the 49-year-old added.

"Having great communications is really important and that does give us a unique opportunity – east, west, north and south – but we have to be conscious that it will change the village forever."

The Wheatsheaf was the last pub in Tempsford until it shut down

What is East West Rail?

• East West Rail will be a train line directly connecting Oxford and Cambridge

• The project is expected to cost between £4.5bn and £5.3bn

• The Treasury said it could "unlock £103bn of growth" through new homes, jobs and business opportunities

• The route goes through Bletchley and Bedford, with new track being needed to connect Bedford and Cambridge

• New stations will be built in Winslow, Bedford, Tempsford and Cambourne

• It is expected to be fully operational by 2030

In May, East West Rail and the Department for Transport confirmed their preferred route for a new stretch of track connecting Bedford and Cambridge, including a station at Tempsford.

A East West Rail technical report published at the same time suggests the village could see its population rise by 44,000 through "dependent development". East West Rail said that is a "potential scenario - not a forecast" and stretches to "2050 and beyond".

"The case for East West Rail does not specifically rely on this level of growth – but it may enable it," the company added. It will also be ultimately up to "local decision makers" to determine how much development happens.

The builder Urban & Civic has negotiated options to build on almost 1,000 hectares (2,400 acres) of land near the proposed station. That could see up to 7,000 new homes.

The company said the area could support a "significant and sustainable new community, unlocked by the substantial investment in rail connections which would come with a station" and that it wants to work in partnership with "local authorities and local communities" to create a "shared and positive vision for the local area".

Nikki Pitman moved to the village in November and says it would benefit from a station

Nikki Pitman, 50, a virtual personal assistant who moved to the village in November, said a new station would be "brilliant".

"I think it's a great benefit to the village because there isn't any form of transport here," she said.

"If you go out into London or Cambridge it would be a great opportunity to get a train there and back."

Paulette Smith has lived in Tempsford since 1996 and hopes a station would bring more life to the village

Retired nurse Paulette Smith, 63, said that without a car villagers are "a bit stranded" and having a station within walking distance would be "quite handy".

"It would be nice to have a little bit more life in the village and I think for the young people – I mean, they must be bored out of their minds because there's nothing for them to do," she added.

"I can't think of anything they can do – they have to be driven everywhere."