East West Rail

The Parish Council has been participating in the consultation on East West rail for some time now. The latest consultation event held on Thursday 23rd April 2-7pm at Tempsford Memorial Hall was attended by one of the Clerks and discussed at last nights meeting.

The session had lots of information, in summary the proposal as it stands

1) New Station will be to the north of the A421 new road, north of Tempsford, and will be accessible through an underpass under the new road.*

2) The line will be electrified up to Tempsford station, then be expected to run on batteries to Cambourne, then electrification will commence again (presumably on existing electrified lies) into Cambridge. Dual power trains will be required.

3) Station will be dual height, with lower station serving main north south rail route London to Peterborough-Edinburgh, higher station will be the EW rail route Oxford/Cambridge beyond..

4) Large multi storey car parks are being provided at the east and west of the stations, eastern car park on the east of A421 new road. Multi Storey car park on west to be accessed off Bedford Road/link to Black Cat (?)

5) Two passenger trains per hour to Oxford and two per hour to Cambridge, possibly with additional service beyond Cambridge. One freight train in either direction per day.

6) Transport and accessible transport

Please see display board- issue how people who have to access the new stations by using existing Everton Main line level crossing – no plans to provide bridge or upgrade this connection- so residents from East settlements (Everton Potton Gamlingay etc) will still have no way of accessing new station without using this crossing. Cycling and footway links- up to 2 KM will provide footpath/cycleway connections- so Tempsford village likely to be connected and Eynesbury? But no communities to east. Matter raised. Will provide some connectivity up to 5 KM but need to ask for it. V poor information on this- maps cut off south of area.

7) Environment- display board with small amount of information

The Parish Council agreed to submit a response at this stage to the consultation based on the following:

a) Need to ensure they make footpath and cycleway connection to existing communities to the East- Potton/Gamlingay/Everton- alternative to using current level crossing to access the station from the East/Southeast. Otherwise, it will be a significant additional time/cost for these residents and result in them using their cars rather than using accessible transport to reach the station. (Car park charging rather than walking/cycling where they can). Also environmental costs to favouring car driving short distances to station. Too much emphasis on multi storey car parks- favouring car travel to reach station. Offering car ‘storage’ for Universal studios customers- creating large car parks similar to airport long and short stay.

b) Why is Tempsford to Cambourne not electrified?

c) Siting station north of new A421 link road makes the station less accessible for communities to the south and southeast, more accessible to Eynesbury/St Neots who already have a station.

d) Needs to be a plan to create accessible links FOR THE EXISTING POPULATION to access the station- demonstrate footpath and cycleway accessibility plans as well as ‘car parking’ solutions…very poorly thought out to date (up to 5Km)- this isn’t ‘someone else’s problem’…

All residents are encouraged to go along to future consultation sessions or view details online in the virtual consultation room – eastwestrail.co.uk/consultation2026