MAXIMISING EAST WEST RAIL |
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Above, a diagram showing how East West Rail unlocks a 'corridor of corridors' across the region |
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Supercharging the region’s ‘corridor of corridors’ |
The opportunity East West Rail presents is about so much more than new train services on 80-odd miles of track. It can transcend expectations of what infrastructure can unlock for our economy, environment and society: but only if we – collectively – enable this to happen.
East West Rail must be the catalyst for a far wider integrated, connected transport corridor, offering superb door-to-door connectivity to and from stations. Alongside this, the Oxford-Cambridge section can be used as the foundation for realising the Northampton-Milton Keynes-Aylesbury-High Wycombe-Old Oak Common rail corridor; and a coast-to-coast main line from Bristol through to Ipswich and Norwich.
At the same time, there are opportunities to use delivery of East West Rail to supercharge a regional investment corridor, innovation corridor, skills corridor, nature corridor, digital corridor and so on. Creating a fully integrated ‘corridor of corridors’, much more than the sum of their individual parts, to realise the government’s ambitions for the Oxford to Cambridge Growth Corridor.
That’s why England’s Economic Heartland has been working with government, local partners, East West Railway Company, the Pan Regional Partnership, Science Supercluster Board and Oxford to Cambridge Universities Group to explore how East West Rail can supercharge the ambitions of the region.
You can read more about this work in our new Maximising East West Rail prospectus, which sets out the initial programme of work being progressed by EEH and its partners (some of which is funded as part of Government’s ‘East West Rail legacy' funding).
Agreed by our Board last week, EEH's Maximising East West Rail prospectus provides the framework for a bold future that puts our region’s communities, lifestyle, environment and economic strengths at the forefront of what we do.
Read more here |
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EEH has ‘key role’ in maximising East West Rail |
The Secretary of State for Transport has told EEH that it has a 'key role' to play in maximising the benefits of East West Rail. In a letter to EEH's Chair Cllr Liz Leffman, Heidi Alexander said: “As you know, East West Rail is a priority transport project for the Government. It is a crucial programme for unlocking opportunities across the OxCam corridor and delivering the Government’s growth mission. EEH has a key role to play in ensuring East West Rail is part of an integrated transport network and that the benefits of investment in the new line are fully realised.” Her comments were made in response to a letter from EEH's Chair Cllr Liz Leffman, which had set out how regional Spending Review priorities would help realise the ambitions for the Oxford to Cambridge Growth Corridor. This included the importance of East West Rail, improving bus services and integration, and securing investment in order to deliver capacity improvements at Ely Junction as soon as possible.
The Transport Minister added that ‘the Department recognises the benefits’ that investment in Ely and Haughley rail improvements ‘could bring to the region’ but that ‘potential funding to progress the enhancements would need to be considered as part of the Spending Review, due for announcement in the summer’. |
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Plans for the 5G East West Rail line – in 55 seconds |
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A central part of maximising East West Rail is the ‘digital corridor’. This short, informative video from our colleagues at England’s Connected Heartland, brilliantly explains what’s going on… all in less than a minute.
EEH is proud to have secured the funding which enabled digital fibre to be installed between Bicester and Bletchley while East West Rail was being constructed - which this groundbreaking project builds upon. |
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INTEGRATED NATIONAL TRANSPORT STRATEGY |
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Above, delegates at the INTS roadshow in Milton Keynes earlier this week |
Consultation response submitted as EEH supports DfT roadshow |
Government’s development of the Integrated National Transport Strategy (INTS) is an exciting opportunity to put people at the centre of transport policy in a way which is ambitious and innovative. Integration of systems, modes, data and joined-up decision making are all key to ensuring journeys across the transport network are easy, reliable and convenient.
As part of EEH’s response to the INTS ‘call for ideas’, we have outlined that it is vital that major infrastructure projects, including key schemes in the region such as East West Rail, have integration and ‘door to door’ solutions built in from the beginning of the project.
EEH also supported DfT’s INTS roadshow event in Milton Keynes on 11 March, in which stakeholders from across the region fed back directly to the senior officials producing the strategy. |
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Westcott at heart of drone technology |
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2024 Road Travel Time Measures Published |
The Department for Transport has published the travel time measures for the Strategic Road Network and local 'A' roads.
These statistics cover road congestion and travel times on motorways and ‘A’ roads managed by Highways England and on locally managed ‘A’ roads for January to December 2024. The data found that nationally, delay times on 'A' roads during 2024 had increased by 3.4% to an estimated 48.3 seconds per vehicle per mile (spvpm) compared to free flow.
On the Strategic Road Network (SRN) for the year ending December 2024, the average delay was estimated to be 11.7 seconds per vehicle per mile (spvpm), compared to free flow, an 11.4% increase on year ending December 2023. The average speed was estimated to be 55.9 mph for the year ending December 2024, down 1.9% from December 2023.
Read more here |
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Newsletter produced by England's Economic Heartland sub-national transport body, based at Buckinghamshire Council, Walton Street, Aylesbury. Email businessunit@englandseconomicheartland.com for general enquiries. |
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