Track
laying


for
East
West
Rail
between
Bicester
and
Bletchley
is
now
‘99
per
cent
complete’,
according
to
East
West
Rail
Co


(writes
Sim
Harris).

The
route
was
already
equipped
with
track
between
Bicester
and
Calvert
Junction,
but
this
has
been
relaid.
The
formation
of
the
rest
of
the
route
between
Calvert
and
Bletchley
was
intact
but
disused.
As
a
result
some
rails
and
sleepers
had
disappeared,
and
were
presumably
stolen
for
their
scrap
value,
while
the
flyover
which
carries
the
route
over
the
West
Coast
Main
Line
at
Bletchley
has
been
been
replaced,
along
with
all
the
track
between
Bletchley
and
the
junction
with
the
Oxford
line
at
Bicester.

But
although
moving
forward,
the
project
has
also
sustained
some
hard
knocks.

Plans
to
electrify
the
route
as
part
of
the
‘Electric
Spine’
of
2012
were
dropped
some
years
ago,
although
passive
provision
is
being
made
for
a
future
overhead
when
structures
are
built.

Meanwhile,
the
section
of
the
former
Great
Central
Main
Line
between
Calvert
and
Aylesbury
has
been
singled
but
still
carries
freight
trains.
Even
so,
the
link
has
been
removed
from
the
current
plans,
meaning
that
Aylesbury
will
not
gain
its
hoped-for
connections
with
Oxford,
Milton
Keynes,
Bedford
and
eventually
Cambridge
for
the
forseeable
future.

The
project’s
value
for
money
has
also
been
questioned
in
a
new
report
from
the
National
Audit
Office,
which
has
concluded
that
it
is
‘not
yet
clear’
how
the
benefits
of
the
£6-7
billion
scheme
will
be
achieved,
nor
how
it
fits
in
with
other
government
plans
for
growth
in
the
region.

The
Treasury
has
set
up
a
cross-government
board
to
support
the
development
of
a
‘shared
vision
for
growth’
associated
with
the
scheme.
The
NAO
is
recommending
that
the
Department
for
Levelling
Up
Housing
&
Communities,
the
Department
for
Transport
and
the
cross-government
board
should
establish
effective
‘cross-department
governance’.

Head
of
the
NAO
Gareth
Davies
said:
‘The
rationale
for
East
West
Rail
rests
on
its
wider
strategic
aims
of
increasing
economic
growth
in
the
Oxford
to
Cambridge
region.

‘To
maximise
the
economic
benefits
from
its
investment
in
East
West
Rail,
government
must
ensure
stronger
strategic
alignment
between
departments
and
with
wider
local
growth
initiatives,
so
that
there
is
a
shared,
coherent
vision
for
the
future
of
the
region,
and
the
contribution
that
the
East
West
Rail
project
will
make
is
clear.’