Moves to reopen the railway line linking Oxford with Milton Keynes and Cambridge have taken a step forward after £2m of Government funding was allocated to help develop the project.
The East West Rail Consortium wants to revive the line between Oxford, Bicester, Milton Keynes, Bedford and Cambridge.
The consortium was formed in 1995 and includes councils, railway firms and businesses along the route.
The plans are now expected to move from the feasibility stage to the design stage.
The initial phase of the project would connect the existing Oxford-Bicester Town and Bletchley-Bedford passenger routes by reopening the mothballed line from Bicester to Bletchley, in the south of Milton Keynes, which was last used by freight trains in the 1990s.
The route east of Bedford to Cambridge was dismantled after being closed in the 1960s.
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