This year’s Cowley Branch Line Walk was the biggest ever, reflecting the huge amount of support for reopening the 3-mile-long freight train line to passengers. 

Anneliese Dodds, Labour MP for Oxford East, has been campaigning to reopen the line for many years. Her annual Cowley Branch Line Walk traces the route of the existing train line linking Oxford Train Station with the BMW Mini Plant in Cowley. 

This year, the walk kicked off at BMW Cowley before visiting ARC Oxford, the proposed sites for two new train stations in Cowley (by Tesco Superstore) and in Littlemore (off Priory Road), and then the Oxford Science Park. The walk then continued along the ring road, through Grandpont, and all the way to Oxford Train Station. 

Although the walk took around 4.5 hours, a train journey along the line could be completed in under 10 minutes. 

Anneliese said: “Reopening the Cowley Branch Line would be such a huge boost for the communities of Cowley, Littlemore, and Blackbird Leys. It would make so many local people’s journeys faster and easier, promote local jobs and growth, cut carbon emissions, and help deliver much-needed housing. And it’s an incredible opportunity to create a new expanded hub for science and innovation – right here in Oxford East.” 

With each passing year, support for reopening the line to passengers has grown.

Anneliese added: “The amount of enthusiasm that this project has received is fantastic. Big thanks to all those who have been working so hard to turn it into a reality – the Oxford Science Park, the Ellison Institute of Technology, ARC Oxford, Oxford City Council, Oxfordshire County Council, and many others. It’s great that they could join me on this year’s walk alongside local councillors, East-West Rail, Network Rail, Chiltern Railways, BMW, Christ Church College Oxford, IET, and the Firoka Group.” 

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Notes to editors: 

Anneliese Dodds MP can be contacted with questions and requests for interviews. Please email Isobel Hollingsworth and Klaudia Zaporowska: isobel.hollingsworth@parliament.uk and organiser@oxfordlabour.org.uk.

The Cowley Branch Line would unlock 2.5 million square feet of new workspace within the existing innovation parks, create up to 10,000 new jobs (including over 5,000 new scientists), and connect Oxford’s four major economic clusters with London. This would be transformational not only for the city of Oxford, but for the wider country. 

Paired with the opportunities offered by East-West Rail and the Oxford-Cambridge Corridor Strategy, the project could deliver an additional £78 billion to the UK economy by 2035.

For every £1 of investment (which is anticipated to be up to £163 million), there is an estimated £3.66 return. Local organisations and businesses have already committed £24.5 million towards the project. In the words of Professor Sir John Bell, the President of the Ellison Institute of Technology Oxford, this is part of “the biggest inward investment in science and technology that the country has ever seen”. 

The Cowley Branch Line is expected to be operationally self-funding within a year and carry over a million passengers annually by its fourth year.

More information is available online at www.campaignforcowleybranchline.com