The area around Twyford and Steeple Claydon in north Buckinghamshire, not long ago a quiet rural backwater, is now alive with hi-vis vests and yellow machinery. For it is here that the East West Rail (EWR) line from Oxford to Milton Keynes and Bedford will pass over HS2 as it runs from London to Birmingham. The EKFB joint venture on the HS2 project (comprising Eiffage, Kier, Ferrovial Construction and Bam Nuttall) is charged with constructing the bridge here, along with 3.5km of the new EWR line.
The hamlet of Calvert is well known to students of railway history, as it is here that the Great Central’s London extension from Sheffield to Marylebone intersected with the London & North Western Railway’s Oxford to Cambridge line: today’s work is echoing those efforts of the late 19th century. In World War 2 a south east to north east curve was put in to link the two for freight workings. Again, this will have an echo in this century: in the north-east quadrant of the intersection between EWR and HS2 will be the HS2 infrastructure maintenance depot (IMD), with links to both lines to allow supplies to be brought on to the HS2 line by train from the national network. There has been talk of a passe…
