Rachel Reeves has announced a £2.5 billion investment in a major new rail project connecting Oxford and Cambridge. The funding will support the continued delivery of the East-West Rail line, aimed at boosting travel and economic links between the two historic cities.

The Chancellor, delivering her spending review in the Commons, described the project as a key part of the government’s transport strategy to modernise the country’s rail network. The announcement came during her spending review statement in the Commons today. This funding forms part of a wider push to upgrade infrastructure outside London, she told MPs.

The government is also investing in other rail projects around the country, including £3.5bn for the Transpennine Route Upgrade - the "backbone of rail travel in the North", linking York, Leeds and Manchester.

Earlier in her speech, she told the Commons: "I can announce a further £3.5 billion of investment for that route (TransPennine).

"But my ambition and the ambition of people across the north is greater still and so in the coming weeks I will set out this Government's plans to take forward our ambitions on Northern Powerhouse Rail.

"I have also heard the representations of ... members for Milton Keynes North, Milton Keynes Central, and Buckingham & Bletchley.

'And I can tell the House today, to connect Oxford and Cambridge, and to back Milton Keynes' leading tech sector, I am providing a further £2.5 billion for the continued delivery of East-West rail."

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