Rachel Reeves has announced a £2.5 billion investment in a major new rail project connecting Oxford and Cambridge. The funding will support the continued delivery of the East-West Rail line, aimed at boosting travel and economic links between the two historic cities.
The Chancellor, delivering her spending review in the Commons, described the project as a key part of the government’s transport strategy to modernise the country’s rail network. The announcement came during her spending review statement in the Commons today. This funding forms part of a wider push to upgrade infrastructure outside London, she told MPs.
The government is also investing in other rail projects around the country, including £3.5bn for the Transpennine Route Upgrade – the “backbone of rail travel in the North”, linking York, Leeds and Manchester.
Earlier in her speech, she told the Commons: “I can announce a further £3.5 billion of investment for that route (TransPennine).
“But my ambition and the ambition of people across the north is greater still and so in the coming weeks I will set out this Government’s plans to take forward our ambitions on Northern Powerhouse Rail.
“I have also heard the representations of … members for Milton Keynes North, Milton Keynes Central, and Buckingham & Bletchley.
‘And I can tell the House today, to connect Oxford and Cambridge, and to back Milton Keynes’ leading tech sector, I am providing a further £2.5 billion for the continued delivery of East-West rail.”
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