East West Rail’s in-person consultation events restart this week after a short break over the festive period.
Since the consultation was launched on 14 November 2024, more than 3,000 people have attended community events to learn about updated plans for the project connecting Oxford, Milton Keynes, Bedford and Cambridge.
East West Railway Company (EWR Co) is encouraging people to attend the remaining events and provide feedback on the early designs for the new railway.
East West Rail (EWR) will unlock access to jobs and space for businesses to grow, regenerate town centres, improve connectivity across the region and the rest of the UK, and support new affordable housing.
The third non-statutory consultation, which ends on January 24, has attracted significant engagement since it launched. This includes:
- 3,136 people have attended in-person community events so far
- More than 2,200 feedback forms have been received
- Over 33,000 website consultation page views have been made
- Over 4,600 interactive map views have been registered
- The virtual consultation room has recorded more than 5,000 views by more than 1,700 users
The first of six remaining in-person events is being held today (January 7th) where people can discuss the updated proposals with members of EWR Co’s team and see revised design work. There is also a separate online webinar people can join and ask questions.
The updated proposals contain revised infrastructure and design plans for a new stretch of railway between Bedford and Cambridge, plus essential railway improvement works to upgrade the existing railway between Oxford and Bedford.
The plans have been updated following feedback at our previous non-statutory consultation and further technical design work. The consultation comes after the Government committed to delivering EWR in full in the 2024 Autumn Budget.
David Hughes, CEO, EWR Co, said: “Our consultation events have been attended by more than 3,000 people across the route wanting to learn more about our updated proposals and sharing their feedback in significant numbers.”
“There is strong support for East West Rail and much more certainty about the project now. I would encourage people to find out more about the project by attending one of the remaining events and sharing their views to help us refine our designs further to present at our statutory consultation."
The main consultation document can be viewed on their consultation page. This page contains the Consultation Feedback Form, which people can complete to share their views on the project, alongside other supporting documents - these include a Technical Report, which provides further information about how they have developed their designs; an Environmental Update Report and a Transport Update Report, which contain preliminary information about the likely effects of our proposals, and maps, plans and visualisations, which show the proposed route alignment and features, the land that would be required for the project, and illustrations of what some of the main features of the railway could look like.
The non-statutory consultation aims to obtain feedback on the early designs, including areas where they are still considering options. Feedback from the consultation will be taken into account as the designs are further developed and preferred options chosen.
Photo credit: iStock
Video credit: East West Rail
