The Parish Council have been working hard on the East West Rail and attended meetings, stated our preference for the southern routes, signed a recent letter to the Minister of State for Transport objecting to route E in conjunction with the Bedford North villages and had a detailed discussion at the last consultation at St Neots stressing our concerns.
Unfortunately despite our stated preferences for one of the southern routes the preferred route adopted by East West Rail is route E, which of course is the one we are most concerned about. The reason for their choice was due to a strong case being presented by the Mayor of Bedford and preferences being put forward by other interested parties after the last consultation.
Last week RPC members attended a presentation by Will Gallagher who is the Strategy and Sponsorship Director for East/West Rail and other than confirming the corridor would be route E he was unable to be any more specific than that. He clearly did not know the actual route and stated it was still being investigated by their team. He thought there might be some clearer information in the Spring and at that point a non statutory consultation would be held and PC’s involved. It would seem that the rail link to Cambridge would not be open before 2030 and also it was intended there would be 4 trains an hour going to Cambridge but it was not known whether they would be electric, battery, hybrid or other fuel. Freight was open to debate but he suggested that the prime object would to operate as a passenger /commuter route.
The Marston Vale line (Bletchley to Bedford) which forms part of the East West Rail link apparently requires significant upgrading. For example there are 2 single track sections on that line and some parts of the route have a speed limitation of 60 mph. Also due to the volume of proposed rail traffic and a Network Rail requirement it is necessary to close existing level crossings and provide an alternative solution.
It follows that there will be no level crossings on the Bedford to Cambridge route.
Another interesting point was that The Wixams station was going ahead but there would be no connectivity with the East/West route.