Five Things You Need to Know About East West Rail
Five things you need to know about East West Rail One: It supports new jobs and housing By putting towns and cities within easy reach of each other, East West Rail will transform job and housing markets and attract new businesses. Indeed, it is a fundamental part of the new infrastructure for the ‘Oxford-Milton Keynes- Cambridge growth corridor’. The National Infrastructure Commission believes that with the right investment, the region could become the UK’s answer to Silicon Valley, creating more than a million new jobs and tripling the size of its economy. Government has made realising this potential a national priority. Local plans setting out the numbers of new homes across the Western Section area have or are currently being developed by planning authorities in anticipation of East West Rail being delivered. Overall they amount to about 140,000 new homes by the mid-2030s. Two: It transforms connectivity East West Rail will transform connectivity across the region, which, as set out by the National Infrastructure Commission, is fundamental to the delivery of economic and housing growth. It will provide direct services to the region’s primary job and housing markets (alongside cultural, leisure and shopping destinations) and also provides connections to all major cross-country rail lines. For example, people will be able to connect at Bletchley/ Milton Keynes for services on the West Coast Mainline to the north and Scotland, or at Bedford to get to Luton Airport as well as stations to the north. North-south connectivity will also be transformed, with the potential in the future for direct services from Northampton, through Milton Keynes and Buckinghamshire to the new Old Oak Common interchange for HS2, Crossrail and Heathrow services.
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