Rachel Reeves announces new East Coast Main Line station during Oxfordshire speech

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced a new railway station for Tempsford in Bedfordshire. 

In a speech unveiling the government’s plans for the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor, Reeves revealed that the new station would be on the East Coast Main Line (ECML). She stopped short of confirming that the station would be an interchange station to the new East West Rail line as has been planned, but she did say passengers would be able to “reach Cambridge in under 30 minutes and London within an hour".

Tempsford is currently at the centre of plans for a new town to be built on the former RAF site, with 7,000 new homes planned as well as a new science and technology park being built. 

Despite plans being drawn up for a new station at Cambourne further east, the chancellor did not confirm that this would be built.  

Richard Pill, CEO of the British Regional Transport Association said that the plans were “blinkered”. 

“There should be a link between the East West Rail Line and the ECML at Tempsford, but our preferred route east of Bedford St John’s was not in the recent consultation. The government seem blinkered by sweeping development,” he added.