The East West Rail line will link the university cities of Oxford and Cambridge via Bicester, Bletchley and Bedford
The rivalry between Oxford and Cambridge goes back centuries, when every college town was known to call its opposite «the other place».
However, a new £5bn rail link is set to finally unite ancient enemies in hopes of turning the region into a rival to Silicon Valley or Boston, Massachusetts.
East West Rail will revive the old 'University School'. The line, previously dropped in the 1960s, linked Oxford to Cambridge via Bicester, Bletchley and Bedford and cut travel times by an hour. Rector Jeremy Hunt backed the plans in the November Autumn Statement. The route is expected to be fully operational by the early 2030s.
But like its big brother, High Speed 2 (HS2), East West Rail is fighting opposition, and the prospect of lawsuits threatens to derail and delay the scheme.
«We've never been asked if the whether we wanted it or not,” says Dr. William Harrold, a retired communications engineer who is leading the campaign against the Cambridge section of the road. even more perfect if we do it this way?” Where is democracy in this?”
1806 East-West Railway Project
The first part of East West Rail, designed to upgrade the tracks between Oxford and Bicester, was completed in 2016. Work is currently underway to restore the section of the railway between Bicester and Bletchley, due to be ready in 2025.
This will be followed by the reconstruction of the line between Bletchley and Bedford, and then the construction of completely new tracks from Bedford to Cambridge .
The business case is based on lofty ambitions to turn the region, dubbed the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor or the Oxford-Cambridge arc, into a life sciences hub spanning Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and Cambridgeshire.
«In essence , you have two of the best universities in the world, but at the moment the road connection is not very good, and, in fact, there is no direct connection by rail,” says Sir John Armitt, who heads the National Infrastructure. Commission (NIC) and previously worked on the London 2012 Olympics.
“People will say it already works very well, and yes it probably does, but it could work a lot better.”
NIC's 2017 report says the biggest constraint to the region's potential is housing, with demand far outpacing supply.
The most obvious proof of this is prices. In Cambridge, the ratio of median house prices to income is 13:1, while in Oxford it is 12:1. Both are significantly higher than the general ratio for England, which is 8:3.
NIC in its report called for the construction of a million houses by 2050 across the arc between the two cities. the land needed for these homes, sparking a boom that will create 1.1 million new jobs and increase UK output by £163bn a year.
But resistance turned out to be fierce, and campaigners were outraged by what they believed was a Whitehall-imposed plan to cover the countryside with highways and housing estates.
Only the east-west railway survived the hype—NIC's housing and Oxford proposals. The Cambridge Expressway was rejected by ministers.
The strength of the rail link surprised some, as the Chancellor's recent support dispelled doubts about whether the project would be completed.
A Treasury Department source says Hunt was ultimately convinced by the business case and arguments put forward by medical companies. -biological research, such as AstraZeneca, which constantly lobbied for support. The biomedical giant's Cambridge biomedical campus is set to get its own £200m station on the East West Rail route.
“These are two fast growing cities,” the source adds. “This is very important for the life sciences – countless firms have mentioned it.”
Beth West, chief executive of East West Rail, says the line will allow more workers to get to Oxford or Cambridge from places scattered along the route.
“Both of these cities are booming,” she adds. “So it’s very difficult to understand how new jobs will be created if you don’t find a place for people to live.”
AstraZeneca is based at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, which is set to have its own £200m station. Photo: AstraZeneca
Dr Nick Johnson, Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, also hopes the line will attract investment to areas close to the line.
“I wouldn't just talk about connections between university cities,” he says. “The idea is that you embrace the entire regional partnership and what it brings in terms of investment, educational opportunities and employment opportunities.
“We can be bigger and stronger together. And as mayor, I hope this will help us tackle inequality in my area.”
Most experts agree that Oxford and Cambridge need more workers. But not everyone agrees that building the East Western Railroad and additional homes along its route is the best way to achieve this.
Paul Sweeney, policy and research director for the Center for Cities, argues that there isn't much evidence to support the idea that these types of railroads on their own generate massive growth.
This is because that the number of passengers that can reach the city is largely limited by such basic things as the frequency of arrivals of trains and the number of people that each of them can carry.
“We're talking about one line, not many lines leading to the center of the place,” Sweeney explains. “There is no doubt that this will mean that more people will come. The real issue is how many people there will actually be, and how does that compare to the total cost of the intervention?
«You have to remember that we're connecting two relatively small places, and rail lines aren't cheap.»
Sweeney argues that the best way to address Oxford's sky-high housing prices would be to simply build more houses in and around the city, while providing more reliable transport links for the people who live there.
This criticism echoes Harrold, co-founder of the Cambridge Approaches group, is skeptical about the economic benefits of connecting Oxford to Cambridge by rail, as well as the route chosen by the project leaders, which passes near his village.
Cambridge is struggling with low housing stock and lack of access to workers. convinced of the benefits. “If you have time to get to the stations, the railroad doesn't really compete well with travel time,” Harrold adds.
“The problem this is trying to solve is the growing number of jobs in Cambridge. But nobody really asked, «Is this the right decision?»
Like the groups that challenged HS2, Cambridge Approaches has warned East West Rail that it is ready to seek judicial review in an attempt to force the company to reconsider its decision to enter Cambridge from the south.
As politicians rise. Worried that the UK is becoming a «can't do» country, with energy, transport and utilities infrastructure facing resistance wherever it is offered, the scheme is a microcosm of the challenges faced by large construction projects.
“We are working very hard to try to engage with local communities and demonstrate to people living in rural areas the benefits of the railroad for them,” says East West Rail’s West.But for now, the company still has a lot to convince. Harrold of Cambridge Approaches says he admits that some people will see him as a Nimbi, but adds: «I would say all Nimbie.»
«It's a natural reaction when your community is seriously affected by new infrastructure — and you struggle to understand why.”
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