The Department for Transport (DfT) is preparing to set aside almost £2.7bn to pay for contracts for the delivery of the next stages of East West Rail (EWR).
EWR is a new high-speed rail line between Oxford and Cambridge that is being overseen by East West Rail Co. (EWR Co.), an organisation specially created by the DfT, rather than Network Rail. Work is currently underway on Connection Stage 1, which is seeing the line built from Oxford to Bletchley (Milton Keynes), with a delivery date of early 2025.
The rest of the line is split into Connection Stage 2 (CS2), which will see the line extended from Bletchley to Bedford and Connection Stage 3 (CS3), which will see it taken from Bedford to Cambridge. Previously, the funding for building CS2 and CS3 had not been assured, but the DfT has recently updated its commercial pipeline document and has outlined six forthcoming EWR contracts. These include a £676M contract for the delivery partner on CS2 and CS3 and a £1.12bn contract for civils work.
The contract for ground investigation work is set to go out for procurement as soon as next week, with work starting on site before the end of 2022, which will be the official start of work on CS2.