East-West Rail link: Oxford-Cambridge proposals shown to public

Residents have met East-West Rail representatives at an event regarding the £5bn project to link Oxford and Cambridge.

The drop-in session was held at Haslingfield Methodist Church in south Cambridgeshire, as the village could be affected by the new railway.

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

Campaigners believe it would have "a massive and negative impact".

The East-West Rail scheme looks to create a new link from Oxford to Cambridge, with services being introduced in stages.

Stage one of the line connects Oxford with Bletchley and Milton Keynes, with the first phase of that stage, which upgraded the railway between Oxford and Bicester, completed in 2016.

Work began on the 21-mile (33km) £760m Bicester to Bletchley stretch, which will complete stage one, in 2020.

But in July, the Infrastructure and Projects Authority said in a report that the second stage to connect Oxford and Bedford, and stage three, connecting Bedford and Cambridge, had "major issues" over "project definition, schedule, budget, quality and/or benefits delivery, which at this stage do not appear to be manageable or resolvable".

"The project may need re-scoping and/or its overall viability reassessed," the report said.

The last two sections from Bletchley to Bedford and from Bedford to Cambridge, which would create several new railway stations, were "still in planning, and are dependent on final government funding and approval", the company said.

The campaign group, Cambridge Approaches, said: "Thousands of south Cambridgeshire residents living along the proposed 100mph (161km/h) mainline route are affected by the proposals, which will have a massive and negative impact, with no benefits."

The group said the communities adversely affected by the proposals were Bourn, Highfields Caldecote and Caldecote, Hardwick, Kingston, Toft, The Eversdens, Comberton, Barton, Harlton, Haslingfield, Chapel Hill, Harston, Hauxton, and The Shelfords.

Hannah Staunton, spokeswoman for the railway company, said communities along the route would benefit from "reliable, sustainable and affordable public transport", as well as "improved links to jobs, families and friends - reducing traffic congestion and pollution at the same time".

"We appreciate that there will be a range of different views on our proposals," she said.

"This is why our community engagement events are so important because they allow us to listen to the views of local residents and businesses, who can also learn more about various aspects of the project."

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