Oxbridge pals must stick together eh?! If only the Universities had been charged with delivery of a direct rail link!
BRTA has long added its voice to a new curve linking Aylesbury with
the emergent East-West Oxford-Milton Keynes rail link as that adds to
the project in direct access from East-west to Old Oak Common and all
in between. As ever, email your MP to give support to speedy delivery,
not High Speed per se. In an era of rail campaigns, would benefit n
BRTA needs voices and champions to reopen local rail links x whatever
the political context - we need all-weather-proofed projects.
East-West Rail shows you can be qualified, clever and articulate, but
delivery is what counts and the delivery vehicle model and demands for
endless studies needs revision. Public should be able to put proposals
forward, DfT should do studies and Business Cases to reasonable
thresholds and encouragement to lay people for hope to get a look in
should be laddered so everyone can get into the process and usher it
along. Interesting a push for new-build high speed to Scotland from
Leeds now, when we still await to see the completion of the Borders
Railway, which the English side is the weakest link, not Scottish
desire to forge good rail connectivity per se. Our Dumfries-Stranraer
rail link would benefit South West Scotland on and off the tracks and
also Northern England flows and trade too. Over the coming months I
will be issuing a BRTA top list of local reopenings we measure size,
human and financial resources can facilitate, but more must be matched
with membership growth, revenue generation and competent people. Token
facilitation is what our Forums hold out, it is for local people and
those with leadership skills to work with it and make more. In short
we need people to take batons and make a go of them to the touch-line.
When writing to your MP, ask them to raise a question, encourage
support amongst colleagues and encourage their political party to
adopt pro-affirma policies towards delivery - making it quicker,
easier and more people friendly at all levels.
Oxbridge Railway started with locals concerned about closure and
aspiring for something better. It was piecemeal and hotchpotched.
East-west Rail Consortium from circa 1995 did bring a professional and
better resourced profile to the effort, but from 1997-2010, over 13
years Labour failed to deliver Oxford-Milton Keynes/Bedford and this
is where it picks up from where we are at today! The whole route to
Cambridge should be being delivered now, instead at Bedford it is
bogged down by dissent, poor communication and how involved in
leadership, resources and direction the emergent Universal Theme Park
near Bedford is to its outcome is yet to be quantified. Mayor Tom
Wootton talked about York-the Oxbridge Rail Corridor direct, but
without physical links at Tempsford, won't happen unless they come
onto the Midland Main Line near Chesterfield? Likewise, making
electrification of the Midland Main Line (MML) a priority, lends to
multiple options too. West Northampton Council will,not it seems,
email a letter of support to update the positive studies for a
new-build Northampton-Bedford rail link, so England's Economic
Heartlands has no incentive to support such either and so it goes on.
One tries not to get discouraged, downhearted and cynical, but it
needs a better approach, like a nationwide plan which knows where it
is going? Meanwhile in Wales, a plan is launched with 5 new stations,
but yet to hear of reopening the West Wales Main Line
Carmarthen-Aberystwyth-Criccieth-Caernarfon-Bangor... we support
campaign groups for such, bringing regeneration as it would. As for
East Anglia, Hunstanton needs a rail link and Stansted a direct order
from Rachel Reeves MP to get on with it, re-railing to Braintree and
Colchester, as currently they have no interest, no incentive or
responsibility to impact of airport expansion, another cart before the
proverbial airport expansion go ahead (horse!).Government comes across
as a child demanding 10 bananas when one is needed for a packed lunch!
There is money about, but in the wrong hands, being wasted on roads
and polluting in the name of regeneration and jobs, when cleaner rail
solutions and connectivity cries out for a look-in. BRTA will seek to
work through these issues and hopes to see a plan of what our
Westminster Team will do to move it forward. Our newsletters go to
most MP's and assistants are asking to join our loop too.
Meanwhile some bigger organisations do a wonderful job in North Devon,
but swathes of the country are abandoned to the winds of developer
whim. In short, the windows of opportunity are on a limited time-line.
Secretary of State for Transport should make the prime directive of GB
Railways "declutter and cut emissions on motorways and trunk roads on
the back of rail expansion" and that with a date when all will be done
too! That is where 'Brain of Britain' could be useful!.
Yours sincerely,
Richard Pill
BRTA CEO
Ps. I am not available for zoom or studio interviews, but hope to be
back in the swing in the next 8 weeks all being well. Thank you.
Please feel free to include our news and comment where appropriate.
SIGNAL FAILURES - Corridor of uncertainty
The gap between Labour rhetoric and reality on jobs and housing is obvious in the "Oxford-Cambridge growth corridor", where passenger trains still haven't started using infrastructure that was completed in 2024.
In January 2025, Chancellor Rachel Reeve's package for going "further and faster to kickstart the economy" included funding the corridor's East West Rail (EWR) line, "with new services between Oxford and Milton Keynes this year". Two months later Rail Minister Lord Hendy said the line would be "up and running later this year".
Alas, it took the government until March to confirm that Chiltern Railways would run the trains; and when Chiltern managers belatedly inspected EWR's new Winslow station in Buckinghamshire, they found it wasn't fit for purpose. Cue yet more public cash to modernise a brand new station, where bare-minimum platforms will probably need lengthening given expected passenger growth in the 2030s.
Chiltern, which the government micromanages, insists on driver-only operation for EWR, triggering a predictable union tussle (RMT).
The government has already written off £2.6M - for 2024-25 alone - on leasing fees for the Oxford - Milton Keynes Central rolling stock (presumably the sub-lease for the WMR CAF Civity Class 196 2-car DMUs).
The new infrastructure's upkeep also costs money. With no EWR tickets being sold, the only offsetting revenue comes from occasional freight trains between the Midlands and Soyjampton or Cardiff (demonstrating EWR's potential as a thoroughfare between main lines).
For the Oxford - Milton Keynes Central service, taxpayers have spent more than £1.3bn on rebuilding 22 miles of disused railway with new platforms at Winslow and Bletchley (High Level). The government's EWR Company (EWR Co) - idiotically split off from Network Rail by Chris Grayling in 2017 - has had years to prepare stage two, upgrading the existing Bletchley-Bedford (Marston Vale) line, but reconstruction hasn't started. Stage three is more complicated ; a new Bedford - Cambridge route including a two-level station at the planned Tempsford new towns (for trains on EWR and the ECML/GN).
The £5bn-£6bn (2021 prices) estimated cost for the rest of EWR looks optimistic, after the troubles of stage one, but merging EWR Co into Network Rail is on the cards at last. GBR is due to subsume Network Rail and Chiltern next year. EWR's route ahead should be smoother when it's no longer detached from managers of the rest of the rail network.
Comments
Little or no mention of the Class 196 sub-lease (& return of these DMUs for Camp Hill reopening,WMR/Birmingham)
Little or no mention of Universal Theme Park at Kempston Hardwick and the need to rethink infrastructure/service pattern
Little or no mention of the proposal to close some of the local stations on the Marston Vale Line
Little or no mention of the Aylesbury Link being removed from EWR, despite the TWA powers for this and the understanding that after the HS2 infrastructure work between Calvert and Grendon Underwood, the former GCR would be reinstated from Claydon to Quainton Road
No mention of the problems at Bedford due to the opposition of the elected Mayor Tom Wootton & Bedford Borough Council. Need to rebuild both Bedford St. John's & Bedford Midland railway stations. Richard Fuller MP & Tom Wootton coalition at Bedford standing in the way of EWR.
New EWR build east of Bedford compared to the £104M per mile for the National Highways Black Cat/A1 - Caxton Gibbet dualling/realignment
Railways Bill still to progress through Parliament before it receives Royal Assent
Discontinuous electrification along EWR belatedly being proposed (presumably for new battery-electric trains)
DCO powers required for east of Bedford
Failure to use "permitted development rights" within the railway boundary in order that some required infrastructure work can progress quickly on operational parts of the route
No indication of when Oxford - Bedford train services could commence, in theory once Oxford - Milton Keynes Central services begin (subject to rolling stock availability). The Marston Vale line is already an operational railway, with passenger and freight services.
Route from Oxford - Bedford "gauge cleared" for freight, giving direct access to both the WCM & MML. Perhaps ironic that freight trains are operating now before Chiltern has managed to introduce the passenger service between Oxford & Milton Keynes Central! Also because the specification that EWR Co were originally working to was a passenger-only railway!
EWR epitomises the problems that were likely given the original privatisation. A vertically integrated railway is required - but will this be delivered under GBR?
See Private Eye Magazine 20th February 2026.
