East West Rail - a once in life time opportunity for the Oxford Cambridge Arc
On 14 April 2026 East West Rail launched what they described as being "intended to be our final consultation before we submit our Development Consent Order (DCO) application".
Railfuture has responded to that consultation - our response can be read or Downloaded. We also briefed all our members: Read or Download.
We comment "we broadly support the new plans as aligning with our long-term vision and are pleased to see a number of improvements from the 2024 plans, including several of which we raised at the previous consultation." The main changes suggested in our submission are:
- Full conventional electrification of the entire route
- An additional station for St Neots
- Extension to Newmarket
- Cambridge East to be built further east in Cherry Hinton
- Acceleration of the project and a commitment to avoid ‘value engineering’
- It is good news to see that East West Rail will be able to be a key part of the national rail network. It would make an even greater contribution if it was to be electrified throughout - that would be great news for freight, allow it to be used by existing electric trains and avoid the cost and wear and tear caused by carting around heavy batteries.
- More locally, we think that (1) an additional station at St Neots is essential - this would bring up to 36,000 more people into the catchment area for EWR; (2) that the new Cambridge East station should be in Cherry Hilton and (3) that EWR should extend to Newmarket.
- We believe that earlier delivery is essential. The recent lessons from HS2 are both a warning and a solution; the improvements there can now been used as the basis of a much faster start for the works east of Bedford.
For our submissions etc for previous consultations, see our Archive page.
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