CALLS to electrify the East-West Rail link planned between Oxford and Cambridge continue.

Ahead of the May elections, the Liberal Democrats have begun campaigning for the new rail link to run electric trains, instead of diesel as is currently planned.

In January, the Government announced it plans to spend £760m on a new section of train track between Bicester and Bletchley to revive the old ‘Varsity Line’.

After the planned Expressway between the two university cities was cancelled last week, Layla Moran, the Lib Dem MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, has started calling for the money from the road to be ploughed into an upgrade to the new railway.

Liberal Democrats have launched a campaign calling for the East-West railway to be fully electrified.

Ms Moran said: “There’s no country in Europe who are creating more main lines for diesel trains like the UK is.

“At a time when we need investment in a green, reliable railway, the government is taking a step backwards.”

The MP was among many who called for new trains on the tracks to be electrified following the announcement of new Government cash for the project at the start of the year.

Anneliese Dodds, the Labour MP for Oxford East, also said at the time she was 'disappointed' by the announcement East-West Rail would run diesel engines and said she had consistently called for it to be electrified.

The Government hopes the new train line between Bicester and Bletchley will be completed by 2025.

It will allow Oxfordshire residents to travel directly by train to Milton Keynes for the first time since the late 1960s, when services were axed.

Meanwhile, plans to revive a railway station at Grove and Wantage, and for new tracks between Witney and Oxford have been submitted to the Government for grants that might help to jump start these projects.

Both schemes have long been championed by locals.