East West: Thousands of people from Bedford and beyond take part in latest consultation

This is East West Railway Company’s (EWR) third consultation, which lasted for 10 weeks and was held in communities along the entire route.

According to EWR, this consultation – which closed on Friday (January 24) – attracted a record level of people.

David Hughes, CEO at EWR Co, said: “We are now working to review and analyse the feedback that has been received to help inform the continued development of the design over the coming months.”

EWR is now working on its final proposals which will be presented to the public before a planning application for the new infrastructure, a Development Consent Order (DCO), is submitted to the government.

The new railway line to connect Oxford, Milton Keynes, Bedford and Cambridge is split into three phases and will take around a decade to complete.