East West Rail public events see thousands share thoughts
Nearly 6,000 people took part in a consultation exercise on the new East West Railway line that will ultimately link Oxford to Cambridge. There were events at 16 locations along the proposed route between November 2024 and January 2025. At the events, East West Rail presented information on work to upgrade the existing line between Oxford and Bedford, as well as the proposed new line between Bedford and Cambridge.It is the third non-statutory consultation that has been carried out, and will help inform the final design, which will be presented for consideration next year.
The highest level of interest came from people who attended the events in Comberton, Great Shelford and Cambourne in Cambridgeshire.
People largely saw the new route as good for the UK's economic development and felt it could drive up local property values, especially in areas like Bicester and Cambourne. They also felt it could address housing shortages, with more development near the new stations in Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire.There was concern about the demolition of homes, disruption and negative impacts on businesses and house prices during a prolonged construction phase, as well as the visual impact of the line.There were questions too about some station designs, changes to major roads and bridges in Bedford and Bicester, and the environmental impact of a viaduct over the River Great Ouse floodplain.East West Rail said its technical team would now be going through the comments in detail to see if there were any refinements that could be made to the designs.
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