This page was updated in January 2021
Public transport, perhaps?
East-West Rail (EWR), although acknowledged in Highways England’s Corridor Assessment Report (CAR), is effectively ignored in all the calculations about road traffic and journey times. For example, the cost-benefit analysis for the expressway did not allow any shift from road to rail for commuters living near to EWR stations (a possibility mentioned in the text but not allowed for in the benefit:cost ratio calculations).
The western section of EWR, Bicester to Bedford, is due to be completed by 2023, the middle section, Bedford to Cambridge, by 2030 (there is also an eastern section east of Cambridge).
By 2030 you will be able to travel from Oxford to Cambridge in less time than it will take to drive along any expressway.
Moreover the train will deliver you much closer to the city centre than any expressway. Less polluting, more convenient and faster; what’s not to like about a train (and if it were electrified, EWR would be even less polluting)?
EWR is an ideal public transport solution to the problem of connectivity across the Arc. All public transport systems work well only when relatively high density housing is clustered around the bus or train stations involved (and people can then walk or cycle to the stations) – in fact much higher densities than most house builders are currently employing, because their ideal target buyers are looking for executive-style homes, built at relatively low densities (the constant battle over the percentage of affordable or social houses in private sector developments is testament to this).
Building at low densities in rural areas between major cities along the Arc more or less condemns home owners to car-based transport. No public transport system (unless very heavily subsidised) could make a profit serving such communities.
In conclusion, the key to any major development is infrastructure, and especially the transport system. That determines housing density which in turn could determine the attractiveness of any area for business investments. A larger workforce concentrated around a major public transport hub, relying on fewer cars to get to and from work each day has to be a good idea.
But this is the very opposite of all Ox-Cam expressway plans.