East West Rail ‘will destroy precious farmland and have dreadful impact on South Cambridgeshire villages’ says campaigner
Precious farmland in the Cambridge region will be lost forever due to East West Rail and villagers will still face “great wall embankments and viaducts” even under the revised plans, say critics.
William Harrold, from the grass-roots campaign Cambridge Approaches, says the enormous environmental and financial costs of the scheme are alarming.
He points to campaigners’ forecasts, based on a prediction of 2,090 regular Cambridge commuters and an eventual £8bn build cost, that the scheme will still cost “a ridiculous £3.8million per Cambridge commuter” – even if massive housebuilding is unlocked at Tempsford and Cambourne as East West Railway Company predicts. By contrast, Crossrail cost £67,000 per London commuter, he points out.
But he argues the greatest cost will be in the disruption to people’s lives and the environment, even with the improvements made by the introduction of tunnels, announced last week as East West Railway Company launched its fresh consultation.
It is now proposed that a ‘cut and cover’ tunnel will be built beneath the A428, Bourn Airfield development and Highfields Road, with a temporary diversion of the A428 and other local roads. And a tunnel is also proposed through Chapel Hill, near Haslingfield, to reduce the visual and environmental impact of the line.
“The mined Chapel Hill tunnel is better than an open cutting – the longer the better,” says William. “The Highfields/A428 cut and cover tunnel is better than what they had before.
“However, we are not convinced that it is possible to build the southern approach and mitigate disruption to the precious Wimpole Special Area of Conservation, one of only five such sites in England.
“The impact of the grade separated junction on Harston is still very bad and seems to have got worse. The impact on Harlton, Eversdens and Comberton is still dreadful with great wall embankments and viaducts.
“There are still multi-generational farming families whose farms will be wiped out.
“I know first hand of the mental anguish they are now suffering. They are feeling desperate.”
The new proposals also introduce freight loops.
“For example, Chapel Hill to Hauxton junction now has four tracks with the freight loops, so that 775m long freight trains can wait before they go over Chapel Hill,” says William. “Although the initial proposal is still for a capacity of two freight trains per day from Bedford to Cambridge, they make mention of the design being ready in future for one freight train per hour.
“Yet the route they have chosen is not good for freight for reasons explained by Arup in the route update announcement in 2023. Would we be looking at another grade separated junction at Great Shelford?”
Construction of the railway would also be hugely disruptive, he warns.
“There is a zone 50km long and 500m wide from Hauxton junction to Clapham Green, north of Bedford, where farmland will be disrupted for many years due to the construction areas. Much will be permanently lost,” says William. “For example, the field on the top of Chapel Hill where the train emerges from the tunnel will be largely destroyed.
“The farmer tells me that this one field with a cereal crop of oats produces enough for 30 million breakfasts in a year. Thinking about food security we can’t afford to lose all this farmland for the railway, its construction, the in-place biodiversity net gain and all the green field housing assumed at Tempsford and Cambourne. It’s all on some of the best farmland we have in England.
“If the experience is similar to what happened in Buckinghamshire, our rural road network will be badly disrupted during construction which would take years. This would impact residents, businesses and children’s journeys to school. Children only get one shot at their key exam years.”
But supporters can point to the longer-term benefits of getting cars off the roads, easing congestion and aiding routes to work and school.
William is far from convinced.
“Claiming that the railway is green because rail commuters consume less CO2 than road commuters is a small part of the story – the biggest factor is the embedded carbon from the railway and the dependent houses,” he notes.
“Building the railway today would save 100 tonnes of CO2 per year of operation for the Cambridge commuters. That’s about the embedded carbon from one house. With electrification it might be two houses per year.
“The embedded carbon from EWR CS3 [the Bedford to Cambridge section] is somewhere in the range of 3,000 to 15,000 equivalent houses. And of course they want to build another 100,000 EWR-dependent houses. The CO2 payback period for this railway is thousands of years.”
Cambridge Approaches has made its own carbon analysis, as the Cambridge Independent has reported.
“EWR Co say that they are still working on theirs after having spent, by the end of this financial year, 6.5 years and £450million of taxpayers’ money planning the project. I think they just don't like the answer,” suggests William.
If East West Rail does unlock massive housebuilding projects, other infrastructure questions need answering.
“Where is the water infrastructure coming from to build all these additional houses and why are we not seeing the full picture including the housing plans?” asks William.
“The reason that Japanese railways are profitable is that they do the housing, transport and the business sites together in a focussed way. Here the public pay for a railway which may or may not have many passengers and the housing developers get the opportunity of a windfall on green field houses whose success depends little on the railway except as an enabler to get planning permission.”
David Hughes, CEO of EWR Co, said: “East West Rail will provide faster, easier and more reliable journeys to Cambridge - particularly from Bedford and Cambourne – which will improve access to jobs, education and days out.
“The railway will support Cambridge’s renowned life sciences and innovation sectors by helping to remove constraints to economic growth in the city, while enabling more affordable places to live.
“This is why I’m excited to present our updated proposals, which include electrification to reflect our commitment to running a net zero carbon railway, upgrades to Cambridge station and new tunnels to reduce the visual impact of the railway.
“Local authorities and businesses have been calling for this railway for three decades. Our revised plans aim to maximise the benefits of the project and have been influenced by the huge number of conversations we’ve had with local people and businesses, and thousands of responses we have had to our last public consultation.
“I encourage people to read our updated proposals in this consultation, attend one of the public events across the route and share your views to help us refine our designs further so East West Rail can best serve its local communities.”
East West Rail will connect Oxford to Cambridge, via new stations at Tempsford in Bedfordshire and at Cambourne. It will head south from Cambourne into the new Cambridge South station being built at Cambridge Biomedical Campus.
The consultation runs for 10 weeks from 14 November 2024 to 24 January 2025. A series of public drop-in and online events are being held, offering a chance to meet the EWR Co team and ask questions.
In the Cambridge region, these events include:
- 2-7pm, Friday, 22 November, 2024 - Shelford Rugby Club, The Davey Field, Cambridge Road, Great Shelford CB22 5JU
- 2-7pm, Tuesday, 3 December, 2024 - Cambridge Belfry, Back Lane, Great Cambourne CB23 6BW
- 2-7pm, Friday, 10 January, 2025 - Comberton Village Hall, Green End, Comberton CB23 7DY
- 12-5pm, Saturday, 18 January, 2025 - The Clayton Hotel, 27-29 Station Road, Cambridge, CB1 2FB
- 2-7pm, Tuesday, 21 January, 2025 - St Andrew’s Church, Coldhams Lane, Cherry Hinton Cambridge, CB1 3JS
Online webinars will be held from
- 6-8pm, Tuesday, 10 December, 2024 - https://shorturl.at/436Ib
- 10am-12pm, Thursday, 9 January, 2025 - https://shorturl.at/Q0Ezd
Email contact@eastwestrail.co.uk to reach EWR Co’s helpdesk.
