UK: The first test train has run over the Bicester – Bletchley route which has been rebuilt as part of ‘Connection Stage One’ of the East West Rail project to reinstate a rail corridor linking Oxford and Cambridge.
The Class 168 DMU left Oxford at 09.43 on October 21 and arrived at Milton Keynes Central at 10.25, reaching the line speed of 160 km/h on several sections of line.
Chiltern Railways is running test trains to support Network Rail and the infrastructure manager’s East West Rail Alliance with AtkinsRéalis, Laing O’Rourke and VolkerRail.
‘Today is a huge milestone for the East West Rail project’, said Christian Irwin, Network Rail’s Director of Capital Delivery. ‘I am incredibly proud of the partnership between Network Rail, our East West Rail Alliance supply chain partners, the Department for Transport, East West Railway Co and Chiltern Railways, in successfully completing the construction and entry into service of the new railway between Bicester and Bletchley.’
David Hughes, CEO of project promoter EWR Co, said ’we can all now look forward to passenger services beginning next year and delivering the improved connectivity which this region so desperately needs’.
Connection Stage Two will extend services over the existing line from Bletchley to Bedford, and Connection Stage Three would be a new-build route from Bedford to Cambridge.
