In 2017, the National Infrastructure Commission produced a report Partnership for Prosperity, A New Deal for the Cambridge-Milton Keynes-Oxford Arc. This area, it said, ‘contains some of our most productive and innovative places, delivering growth and prosperity for the whole country’. But this could only be achieved by the delivery of major housing growth and the necessary transport infrastructure to take people to and from their places of work.
The Commission proposed that both the East West Rail and Expressway road schemes should be built as quickly as possible, to unlock land for new homes and provide better services for those already living there.
EAST WEST RAILWAY COMPANY
To help promote the project, the Department for Transport established East West Rail Company as an arm’s length state-owned company, similar to HS2 or Network Rail. The Chairman is Rob Brighouse and the Secretary of State the only shareholder. The company became fully operational in September 2018 and is grant funded. Simon Blanchflower CBE was appointed Chief Executive Officer at the end of that year; the company now has 62 employees.
WESTERN SECTION, OXFORD TO BEDFORD
The stretch of EWR from Oxford to Bicester Village is alread…
