The East-West Rail scheme taking trains from Cambridge to Oxford has taken another step to reality. Although quite why anyone currently wants to spent the colossal sums involved in this project is beyond me!
The preliminary investigations for the Bedford to Cambridge section of the new East-West Rail scheme appear to be getting under way. There is a sign at the entrance to Waresley Woods saying that a survey of the bat population will be done. What do the bats in Waresley Woods have to do with the new train line? This only becomes apparent when you realise that the new line might well run through the outskirts of Abbotsley, just a couple of miles away.
The line runs this close to Abbotsley because the “preferred route” arcs up from the Tempsford area towards St Neots. It then runs south of the current A428 between Eltisley and Waresley and on to Cambourne. It will therefore go through the middle of the valley just north of the rather grandly named Eltisley Business Park. Eltisley will be sandwiched between the new A428 to its north and the new railway to its south.
Insofar as Waresley is concerned this new piece of infrastructure of no use. Journeys into central Cambridge will be done much more quickly by road along the new A428 and then by Park & Ride to the city centre. Alternatively, one could drive into town centre car parks. There would be little point in driving to Cambourne railway station, parking and then getting the train into Cambridge. You would then have to walk all the way from Cambridge Station into the centre.
I know of no-one who would take a train into Bedford from here (who goes to Bedford!) As for Oxford, well there must be some need for academic intercourse but in the days of MS Teams & Zoom this can be done without building a railway!
S
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