East West Rail

East West Rail is a strategic aim to establish a new main line railway between East Anglia and South Wales. The immediate plan is to build (or rebuild) a line linking Oxford and Cambridge via Bicester, Milton Keynes (at Bletchley) and Bedford, largely using the trackbed of the former Varsity Line. Thus it provides a route between any or all of the Great Western, Chiltern, West Coast, Midland, East Coast, West Anglia, Great Eastern and the Cotswold main lines, avoiding London. The new line will provide a route for potential new services between Southampton Central or Swansea and Ipswich or Norwich via Reading, Didcot and Ely, using existing onward lines. The government approved the western section (from Oxford to Bedford) in November 2011, with completion of this section expected by 2025.

The line was initially promoted (as the East West Rail Link) by the East-West Rail Consortium, a consortium of local authorities and interested bodies along the route. Since 2013 it has been adopted by the Department for Transport and, in late 2017, the government announced that will be delivered by a quango, the East West Railway Company (rather than Network Rail).

The plan is divided into three sections:

• "Western section" from Oxford to Bedford on the former Varsity Line route, taking advantage of the recently reconstructed Oxford-Bicester line and the existing Bletchley–Bedford Marston Vale line (leaving just Bicester–Bletchley to be rebuilt); This work is in progress and on schedule.
  • the original scope of this section included a branch line to Aylesbury: In May 2023, the EWR Company announced that this branch was not being funded.
• "Central section" from Bedford to Cambridge over a substantially new alignment; in May 2023, the Company announced its preferred route for statutory consultation.
• "Eastern section" from Cambridge to Norwich, Felixstowe and Ipswich on existing lines.

Phase 1 of the western section, the segment from Oxford via Bicester Village to the junction with the Chiltern Main Line, has been operational since December 2016. On 5 February 2020, the Department for Transport made the Transport and Works Act Order for Phase 2 of the western section, the Bicester–Bletchley (and Aylesbury–Claydon) segments. In April 2020, engineering work began on the route of the Bicester–Bletchley segment.

The eastern section, Bedford to Cambridge and Western improvements are categorised as a nationally significant infrastructure project.