Last edited 21 Mar 2024

Varsity Line: Bedford-Cambridge

1 DRAFT PAGE "VARSITY LINE: BEDFORD-CAMBRIDGE"
2 Introduction
3 Why have I chosen ... particular news articles ...?
4 Wikipedia contributors (last edited 12 March 2024, at 12:16) 'Varsity Line'
5 Disused Stations contributors (last updated 2019-06-10) 'Disused Stations'
6 'Varsity Line' - Construction
7 'Varsity Line' - Part closure
8 • Bedford-Bletchley
9 • Bletchley-Oxford
10 • Bedford-Cambridge
11 'Varsity Line' - Proposed New Section between Bedford and Cambridge
12 'Varsity Line' - Part of the Cambridge - Milton Keynes - Oxford Corridor
13 Notes
14 References
15 Appendix 1
16 More

[edit] DRAFT PAGE "VARSITY LINE: BEDFORD-CAMBRIDGE"

• "The Varsity Line and the lines it meets. Disused or freight-only sections are in blue." Source of svg file: Wikipedia (2008)

"A key concept is that of 'form giver', equivalent to a related cluster of schemas or shared mental constructs."
Chris Abel (1972) 'Cultures as complex wholes', Architectural Design, December

[edit] Introduction

When I first started my slot as Designing Buildings' Guest Editor, I searched the site for a list of all the articles about the Varsity Line. There's a particular and personal reason for this: I worked in Oxford and lived In Cambridge for a while in the late nineties and there was no direct railway route linking these university cities - in this particular case the old line between Sandy and Cambridge had been disused since it was closed on 1 January 1968. In fact, I had to travel by road.

Search results stated:—

"This page does not exist. Click here to create the page "Varsity Line"
Designing Buildings

I therefore created the page "Varsity Line" with a copy of the image shown above.

10:42, 11 March 2024 Archiblog (Talk | contribs) (274 bytes) (Created page with "File:Item 24789 - Varsity Line.png • The Varsity Line and the lines it meets. Disused or freight-only sections are in blue. (By Dtcdthingy - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0) [[http...")

I didn't find one on the site but I did find one on the web, namely:—

'Varsity Line' by W

[edit] Why have I chosen ... particular news articles ...?

I have chosen two related articles:—

Wikipedia contributors (last edited 12 March 2024, at 12:16) 'Varsity Line', Wikipedia;
Disused Stations contributors (last updated 2019-06-10) 'Disused Stations', disused-stations.org

[edit] Wikipedia contributors (last edited 12 March 2024, at 12:16) 'Varsity Line'

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[edit] Disused Stations contributors (last updated 2019-06-10) 'Disused Stations'

• Bedford St John's

• Willington

• Blunham

• Girtford Halt

• Potton

• Gamlingay

• Old North Road

• Lords Bridge

This article is about the main railway line which ran between Oxford and Cambridge from 1846 to 1967.

According to an artticle from the web:—

"The Oxford to Cambridge line, when completed, ran broadly west to east. Although a continuous line from Oxford to Cambridge was proposed from time to time, it was actually built by local schemes."
Wikipedia contributors (2024) 'Varsity Line'.

This article posted on Designing Buildings by Norman Fellows ...

Thus this article from the web draws attention because ... to the following headings:—

(1) The 'Diagram of the Varsity, Line, United Kingdom' reproduced above indicates:—

... that the line represented spatially a related cluster of schemas.

(2) The 'Early history' section of the Wikipedia article itself indicates:—

... that the line represented temporally a related cluster of shared mental constructs.

(3) The 'Nationalisation' section of the Wikipedia article states:—

"The main line railways of Great Britain were taken into state ownership at the beginning of 1948, pursuant to the Transport Act 1948."

(4) The 'Rationalisation and extensive section closures' of the Wikipedia article states:—

"In the Beeching Report of 1963, retention of the line was recommended, with only minor curtailment, but in December 1963 closure was once again put forward, as income was only a little over half of operating expenses. Closure was approved, and most local freight facilities were withdrawn on 18 April 1966."

(5) Revitalisation and renewal, East West Rail ...

"Beginning in 2015, work to revitalise and renew the route began; it hoped that the two university cities will be connected by rail again as the East West Rail link before the end of the 2030s ."

Reconstruction

Thus this article argues;–

... that the Varsity Line is a depleted part of the commons;
... that the line should become ...

[edit] 'Varsity Line' - Construction

According to the Wikipedia article entitled 'Varsity Line', the railway was built by three local schemes, namely:—

1846 - 'Bedford Railway', Bedford-Bletchley; [1]
1851 - 'Buckinghamshire Railway', Bletchley-Oxford; [2]
1862 - 'Bedford and Cambridge Railway', Bedford-Cambridge. [3]

According to East West Rail:—

"By 1858 the case for a cross country route from Bedford to Cambridge still proved hard to justify as essential and cost-worthy, being rejected once again by parliament and facing opposition from rival rail companies providing a connection to Cambridge. However in 1860, the Duke of Bedford, keen to promote Bedford Railway as an exchange link, managed to gain royal assent when promoting the cultural value of the overall line, dubbed the Varsity Line for connecting the two great universities of Oxford and Cambridge."
East West Railway Company Ltd (2020) 'Timeline - The Varsity Line and The Railway Boom of the mid 1800's'.

• Bedford-Bletchley.

• Bletchley-Oxford.

• Bedford-Cambridge.

• Table 1: The three sections which became incorporated into the London and North Western Railway (LNWR). [5]

In 1923, the LNWR became a constituent of the London, Midland and Scottish (LMS) railway, one of the 'Big Four' group of companies [6]

According to Wikipedia, there were also five intersecting trunk lines running north-south, namely:–

The Great Western Railway at Oxford, with its northward allies;
the London and Birmingham Railway, forming part of the later West Coast Main Line;
the Midland Main Line, opened by the Midland Railway, crossing the route at Bedford;
the East Coast Main Line, opened by the Great Northern Railway, forming a connection at Sandy; and
the Eastern Counties Railway at Cambridge.

In addition, two other trunk routes were built later, namely:—

the Bicester cut-off; [7]
the Great Central Railway main line. [8]

In 1948, the LMS was nationalised to form part of British Railways [9] as a result of the Transport Act 1947 [10].

nb See the Wikipedia article entitled 'Varsity Line' for a detailed account.

[edit] 'Varsity Line' - Part closure

On 1 January 1968, according to Wikipedia:—

"Passenger services were withdrawn from most of the line [...] and only the Bletchley–Bedford section remained open for passenger traffic."

• Route map drawn by Alan Young. [11]

In 'The Oxford to Cambridge Railway: Forty Years On 1960-2000', Bill Simpson wrote:—

"The Bletchley to Bedford section of the Bedford Railway retained all (of its passenger service) but lost staffing of its intermediate stations and goods services."
"The Oxford to Bletchley route of the one time Buckinghamshire Railway lost its passenger service."
"The line to Cambridge from (Bedford) of the Bedford & Cambridge Railway was closed completely."

[12]

'Disused Stations' (2019) describes closed stations in considerable detail. [13]

Learn More

• Table 2: Diagrammatic route map with added notes.

Since its partial closure, the three parts which made up the route have undergone various changes. For example:—

[edit] • Bedford-Bletchley

"The Bletchley to Bedford section of the Bedford Railway retained all (of its passenger service) but lost staffing of its intermediate stations and goods services."

simpson

[edit] • Bletchley-Oxford

"The Oxford to Bletchley route of the one time Buckinghamshire Railway lost its passenger service."

ib.

[edit] • Bedford-Cambridge

"The line to Cambridge from (Bedford) of the Bedford & Cambridge Railway was closed completely."

(ib.

[edit] 'Varsity Line' - Proposed New Section between Bedford and Cambridge

According to the Wikipedia page entitled 'East West Rail':—

"East West Rail is a strategic aim to establish a new main line railway between East Anglia and South Wales. The immediate plan is to build (or rebuild) a line linking Oxford and Cambridge via Bicester, Milton Keynes (at Bletchley) and Bedford, largely using the trackbed of the former Varsity Line."
Wikipedia contributors (2024) 'East West Rail'.

• Table 3: Possible routes under consideration

[edit] 'Varsity Line' - Part of the Cambridge - Milton Keynes - Oxford Corridor

See a bibliography of articles arranged in chronological order in Appendix 1.

TO BE CONTINUED

[edit] Notes

[1] Wikipedia contributors (2024) 'Bedford Railway', in 'Varsity Line', Wikipedia.

[2] Wikipedia contributors (2024) 'Buckinghamshire Railway', in 'Varsity Line', Wikipedia. (Also 'Buckinghamshire Railway', Wikipedia.)

[3] Wikipedia contributors (2024) 'Bedford and Cambridge Railway', in 'Varsity Line', Wikipedia. According to Wikipedia:—

"(the Bedford and Cambridge Railway) adopted the alignment of an earlier private scheme, the Sandy and Potton Railway."

[edit] References

Network Rail (2024) 'How the East West Rail project will make travel across Britain easier', Network Rail.

Wikipedia contributors (2024) 'Varsity Line', Wikipedia.

[edit] Appendix 1

Frearson, A. (2017-11-30) 'Oxford and Cambridge need good design to become "UK's Silicon Valley" say architects', dezeen.

Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (2018-09-27) 'BBOWT launches legal challenge against government's Oxford to Cambridge Expressway proposal', Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust.

Harrabin, R. (2018-10-27) 'Oxford-Cambridge Arc: Row over central England mega-plan', BBC.

Bidwells (2018-04-05) 'Introducing the Oxbridge Growth Corridor', bidwells.co.uk

Kindersley, S. (2018-10-22) 'Open Letter to Mr R Brighouse', CamBedRailRoad.

Beament, E. (2018-10-27) 'Campaigners warn thousands of acres of woodland could be destroyed by Oxford to Cambridge development', Cambridgeshire News.

Johnson, B. (2018-09) 'Notes on Preliminary Railway Alignment', CamBedRailRoad.

The countryside charity (2018-10-25) 'Cambridge – Milton Keynes – Oxford: A Corridor of Uncertainty for the Countryside', cpre.org.uk

East West Rail (2019-01) 'Eastern Section: Prospectus for Growth', East West Rail.

East West Rail (2019-01) 'East West Rail Bedford to Cambridge Route Option Consultation', East West Rail.

East West Rail (2019-01) 'East West Rail Bedford to Cambridge Route Option Consultation: Route Option Maps', East West Rail.

East West Rail (2019-01) 'East West Rail Bedford to Cambridge Route Option Consultation: Technical Report', East West Rail.

CamBedRaiRoad (2019-01) 'Arguments for a Northern Approach into Cambridge', CamBedRailRoad.

CamBedRaiRoad (undated) 'EWR – CS: CBRR route & Cambridge North Station', CamBedRailRoad.

CamBedRaiRoad (undated) 'CamBedRaiRoad Proposal', CamBedRailRoad.

Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (2021-03-18) 'The Oxford to Cambridge Expressway: a threat to wildlife', Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust.

Lock, D. (2023) 'Oxford MK Cambridge (O2C)', David Lock Associates.

Bidwells (2024) 'Oxford to Cambridge Arc', bidwells.co.uk

CamBedRaiRoad (2024) 'CBRR's Guidance Notes and more detailed maps', CamBedRailRoad.

[edit] More

According to Wikipedia:—

"In 1987, the section between Oxford and Bicester was reopened, followed in 2015 by a connection to the Chiltern Main Line at Bicester, enabling Chiltern Railways to operate an Oxford to London passenger service. There are funded plans for the entire line to be re-established by the mid 2020s, partly on a new route and under a new name – East West Rail."

Further:—

"The immediate plan is to build (or rebuild) a line linking Oxford and Cambridge via Bicester, Milton Keynes (at Bletchley) and Bedford, largely using the trackbed of the former Varsity Line."
Wikipedia, 'East West Rail'. [*]

[*] Wikipedia contributors (2024) 'East West Rail', Wikipedia.

KEY

item_24829

The lines on the route map indicate three outcomes:—