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Shapps to cut back East West Rail?

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has cast doubt on the second and third phases of East West Rail, saying that cutting them “would save £3-5 billion straightaway”.

Shapps was talking to LBC presenter Iain Dale on July 11, the day before withdrawing from the contest to replace Boris Johnson as Conservative leader.

In the interview, Shapps proposed a “fiscal star chamber” that would consider all proposed government spending as a potential route to saving money and gave the Bletchley-Bedford and Bedford-Cambridge sections of EWR as examples of where cuts could be made. That would leave EWR with just the Oxford-Bletchley/Milton Keynes services being delivered as part of the first stage.

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