Written ministerial statement by (Parliamentary Under Secretary
of State for Transport)
England’s road network is a huge national asset and a cornerstone
of our present and future economic prosperity. Across the country
the Government is investing in this network, in order to open up
new opportunities, improve productivity and connect people and
businesses.
As part of this, after considerable consultation and review, the
Government is announcing today the preferred corridor for the new
Oxford-Cambridge Expressway, accepting the recommendations of
Highways England.
The Expressway, which fills a major gap in the national road
network, will work together with the proposed East West Rail link
to revolutionise east-west connectivity. In so doing, it will
help unlock the commercial development of up to one million new
homes.
The Expressway is projected to take up to 40 minutes off the
journey between the A34 south of Oxford and the M1, so that
hundreds of thousands of people will be brought within reach of
high quality jobs in centres of rapid growth such as Oxford
Science Park. The preferred corridor identified today runs
alongside the planned route of East West Rail, so that consumers
have a variety of road and rail travel options.
This decision determines the broad area within which the road
will be developed: the process of designing a specific route will
now get under way, involving extensive further consultation with
local people to find the best available options. Members of the
public will be able to comment on the full set of front-running
designs in a public consultation next year, and the road is on
schedule to be open to traffic by 2030.
The choice of this corridor means that the Government has ruled
out construction in the area of the Otmoor nature reserve,
underlining its desire to protect the natural environment.
The Government also recognises that no one corridor can support
every proposed development across the area. It is therefore
commissioning England’s Economic Heartland to carry out a study
of how to provide better connectivity across the wider area, so
that places outside of the preferred corridor enjoy the benefits
of growth as far as possible.
Between 2015 and 2021 the Government is investing £15 billion to
improve the UK’s busiest roads. Already, it has opened the first
all-motorway link from Newcastle to London; and after 45 years
without change the Department for Transport is working with
Transport for the North to develop three upgrades to capacity
across the Pennines.
The Government is also spending billions to transform
connectivity in the South West with the dualling of the A303 and
A30, and to create better access to and from our ports and
airports through projects such as the Lower Thames Crossing and
upgrade of the A14 link between the Midlands and Felixstowe.
The common theme linking all these projects is the need to create
and upgrade the UK’s infrastructure. So too it is here with the
New Oxford-Cambridge expressway.
