• The Route
• Western section
• Central section
• Main line connections

The Route

The proposed East West Rail route can be broken down into three sections; Western, Central and Eastern. The challenges in each section are different and recent work has focussed on the Western section.

Western

The Western section runs along existing lines to Oxford, and then over the existing Bicester Town branch line. The Bicester Town line is set to be significantly upgraded as part of Chiltern Railways Evergreen 3 project. This will help East West Rail but further upgrade of the line to double track throughout will still be required. Beyond Bicester, East West Rail will use a currently freight-only line to Claydon which will need to be upgraded. The same line continues to Bletchley but this section has been out of use since the mid-1990s and will need to be rebuilt. At Bletchley, East West Rail will then follow the existing Marston Vale Line to Bedford. Bletchley is on the West Coast Main Line, allowing East West Rail trains to also run to Milton Keynes.

The Western section also covers proposals for trains running from London Marylebone to Milton Keynes via High Wycombe and Aylesbury. This part of the route will use existing Chiltern lines to Aylesbury Vale Parkway, then a currently freight-only line which joins the route described above at Claydon.

Central

The central section of East West Rail runs between Bedford and Cambridge and presents the biggest challenge to opening of the full East West Rail route, as railway routes east of Bedford to the East Coast Main Line closed in the 1960s and have been built on in places.

A number of options for re-instating this “missing link” and the onward route to Cambridge have been investigated.

Eastern

The Eastern section is east of Cambridge and will use existing routes towards Norwich and Ipswich.