East West Rail Route Campaign

Campaign for a rethink on East West Rail Route through Bedford gathers pace.

(A view from Ravensden towards Mowsbury medieval hillfort in the centre of the picture, Graze Hill is to the right and Oldways Rd runs across in the centre right to left. EWR could run right across these fields if it turns across towards Renhold on its way towards the A1)

A campaign, led by several Parish Councils, is gathering pace to urge Bedford Borough Council (BBC) to re-think its support for the new East West Rail (EWR) route that will run through the centre of Bedford, over the A6 and new bypass by the Aldi/ Sainsburys roundabout, and out through Clapham/ Woodlands Park and then the villages towards the south of St Neots.

EWR is connecting Oxford to Cambridge and is a national infrastructure project to enable travel and housing development as well as freight movement from East coast ports. The Bedford to Cambridge section is due to be built between 2025 and 2030.

The Mayor and BBC campaigned for a route that runs directly through the Midland Mainline station in order to support development plans for the town. The campaign against the chosen route argues this support, and its impact, was not properly debated or discussed with residents and that the benefits promoted could be met equally with alternative routes where trains run in and out of Bedford from the south.

Campaigners argue that the chosen route has the worst environmental impact, incredibly significant engineering challenges with steep gradients requiring major banks and cuttings, high costs and will run a major overnight freight route through the centre of Bedford.

Other concerns about the route include that it will bring years of major disruption to the north of the town including the main A6 route into Bedford from the north. It will also bring further traffic congestion and pollution around Midland station; it will significantly damage a fundamentally rural area and will open up north Bedfordshire for massive further housing development.

The alternative routes, rejected by BBC and EWR, run along the A421 to the south of Bedford and across to the A1. These routes are flatter, presenting significantly less engineering challenges, and pass through an existing development corridor.

A petition at https://bit.ly/3jPTvyg has been started to urge BBC to reconsider its support for the route through Bedford and is on the Councils e-petition website. There is also a Facebook page at http://bit. ly/3pjppo4