I don't believe EWR have announced any firm decisions.
Unfortunately not. The best I can find is in post #6380, which are for the full route Oxford-Cambridge.
The options for MVL stations being considered are listed in "table 38: MVL Scope Recommendations" of the Economic and Technical Report here:
In Marston Vale we don't know yet.
As an alumni of the University of Surrey I would argue that in its areas of expertise it can well be mentioned in the same breath! It is, after all, one institution whereas Oxford and Cambridge are made up of many.
The vast majority of people visiting Universal by train will be coming from London. As a family type attraction, those not living in London will mainly come by car. Difficult to see what centres of population along EWR will generate the equivalent of half the number of visitors that will come from London.
I can imagine significant numbers of people coming from the North West / West Midlands and changing at Milton Keynes or Bletchley for Universal, likely nowhere near the amount of people from London, but I can certainly see a busy flow there
Do you mean the the significant number of theme park attenders will be from the northwest / Midlands with nowhere near as many from London, or do you mean those from the northwest / Midlands will be nowhere the number of people from London ?
I am saying that whole there will be a lot from London, there will still be an amount worth keeping in mind coming via Milton Keynes/ Bletchley.
Reading was Cambridge before Cambridge boomed - from the M4 corridor point of view of tech jobs. Microsoft and Oracle.
When comparing Oxford, Milton Keynes, Bedford, and Cambridge with Reading and Guildford, I'd say the former wins on most predictors of rail demand (tourist attractiveness, economy, railhubs, linked institutions, and possibly population?)
The differences between the Oxford & Cambridge areas over Reading & Guildford are:
Until 10 years ago you would have been right, but not any more.
Reading has benefitted hugely from being part way between London and Oxford, but it doesn't compare with either, or with Cambridge. When EWR opens, Milton Keynes will benefit in much the same way from being part way between Oxford and Cambridge, and Bedford should be looking to get some of that benefit too.
This is one of the most important benefits of EWR.
That's a good point, but I think there are a few key differences in their growth that will cause a difference in rail demand:
Quite. And there's a lot more growth in pipeline in the Cambridge area: Savill's recently reported that 6.4m sq ft of laboratory space was in the development pipeline. (That's nearly four times the size of Lakeside Thurrock Shopping Centre). That equates to a lot of well-paid jobs - and knock-on demand for housing and services.
One of the big differences between M4 corridor tech employment growth previously and Cambridge now/recently is that the M4 tech jobs were mostly created by big/medium sized firms - Cambridge has some of that but also lot and lots of start ups
Indeed and the Cambridge area green belt has limited home building leading to very high prices. THe M4 corridor had enough land and good road and rail links to have the office space and the housing to go with it. A lot of EWR is about surround town and lots of new build trying* to address the housing situation. (* it will fall short!). Effectively trying to clone Bicester/Abingdon in Cambridgeshire.
But unfortunately its still in the Greater South East so that will pile pressure on public services, like hospitals, schools, water in this area rather than spread outside of the Greater South East.
Splitting hairs to some perhaps, but I would say importantly (particularly in terms of regional funding allocation), Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire are in the East of England, rather than the South East (and yes, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire _are_ in the South East
.Splitting hairs to some perhaps, but I would say importantly (particularly in terms of regional funding allocation), Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire are in the East of England, rather than the South East (and yes, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire _are_ in the South East
Depends how much you want to zoom out. There are millions upon millions in the Thames Valley, Anglia, South Midlands, Wessex, whatever - who do not want to live or work in London but doing a hybrids role in Reading, Oxford or Cambridge might be perfectly doable. And earning higher wages.
The Tempsford/Cambourne route is primarily to unlock land for houses from which the residents can commute to Cambridge.
That applies to anywhere with a rapidly growing population. The Cambridge area has plans for hospitals and water, the schools need to be located with the new housing.
The government have been putting Bedfordshire in the East of England for a long while now.
According to mapping websites, Tempsford and it's airfield (which is AFAIA is where the new housing is earmarked be built) is wholly within Bedfordshire, so I don't understand why you think it will straddle the Beds/Cams border.
We don't know much about the new town yet, but, if it is going to make East West Rail worthwhile, it is going to be much bigger than the airfield. I'm thinking roughly the same size as nearby St Neots or Huntingdon as a guide. Furthermore, the proposed station locations in the technical document are quite a long way north of the airfield, near to the new A421 Black Cat-Caxton Gibbet road, and close to the county border, which crosses the ECML near Little Barford, south of the existing A428 St Neots bypass.