Transport Insights

Anyone planning to catch a train in the new-ish East West Rail line should not hold their breath as the only transport minister who is answering parliamentary questions on anything has declined to give a start date for any of its “connection stages”, including one that was scheduled to start this year.

Layla Moran, LibDem MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, put down a parliamentary question:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she expects the first phase of East-West Rail to open this year; and what her Department’s planned timetable is for the opening of the (a) Bletchley to Bedford and (b) Bedford to Cambridge sections.

Local transport minister Simon Lightwood’s reply was full of wishful thinking but without any firm timetable:

The Department is working closely with Chiltern and other partners to confirm a start date for the service. We are looking forward to commencing services as soon as all necessary approvals and infrastructure are in place. Passenger services will commence once train testing and driver training have been completed. As for the second and third connections phases; the Government has committed to accelerating work to deliver EWR services between Oxford-Bedford. The full Oxford-Cambridge service is subject to an application for a Development Consent Order and is planned to commence from the mid-2030s.

In April this year, Rail News reported that services between Bicester, Bletchley and Milton Keynes, i.e. the second part of connection stage one, were not expected to start until almost the end of this year. Now even that may not happen.

It’s also very difficult to keep track of the funding for the overall project, which has an overall funding envelope but with funding only confirmed piecemeal. It may happen…one day.