Friday 5 Feb 2010
£35M RAIL UPGRADE WILL EASE TRAFFIC CONGESTION IN IPSWICH
- Region & Route:
- | Eastern: Anglia
- | Eastern
Plans for a £35 million investment in the rail infrastructure in Ipswich, which will ultimately take around 750,000 lorry journeys off the road every year, moved a step closer today as Network Rail announced its design partner for the works.
As part of its plan to build a bigger and better railway, Network Rail is upgrading the route from Felixstowe to Nuneaton in the West Midlands via Ely, Peterborough and Leicester. Jacobs Engineering will work with Network Rail to design the two major elements needed to increase capacity between Ipswich and Peterborough:
- A new 1km stretch of track, or ‘chord’, north of Ipswich goods yard, linking the East Suffolk and Great Eastern lines (£35m)
- Two 775m loops east of Ely station to facilitate better regulation of trains through the junctions at Ely (£18m)
Today, Anglia’s freight trains have to travel down the busy Great Eastern main line, through London and up the West Coast main line to reach the Midlands, North West and Scotland. Once complete in 2014, these infrastructure improvements will provide more direct journeys for freight trains travelling from the Port of Felixstowe to the Midlands, North West, and Scotland, and the potential for faster journeys to Yorkshire.
With container traffic in the UK expected to more than quadruple by 2030, Network Rail’s plans will see an increasing share of freight traffic handled by the railways, reducing pressure on congested roads such as the A14. It is estimated congestion on the A14 alone costs the region £80m each year.
Andrew Munden, route director for Network Rail, said: "Rail can provide a cheaper, greener and more practical way of transporting freight compared with road. The investment we are planning in the east of England will ultimately take more than 2,000 lorry journeys off the road every day - that’s around 750,000 a year by 2030, reducing traffic congestion, improving road safety and reducing CO2 emissions by around three-quarters.”
Cllr Derrick Ashley, chairman of the East of England Regional Assembly Regional Planning Panel, commented: “This is great news for the region, which has been lobbying hard for this improvement. Moving more freight by rail is vital if we are to boost the economy whilst reducing impacts on our roads and the environment.”
Network Rail and Jacobs will now work on the design of the scheme and seek the local community’s views during 2010 before any work goes ahead. Work on the scheme is due to start in 2012 and be completed by 2014.
Notes to editors
The Felixstowe to Nuneaton freight upgrade scheme will bring the following benefits:
Vehicles off the road
The Port of Felixstowe has increased rapidly in size over the past few years. When the Felixstowe South redevelopment is completed in 2014 and the new Bathside Bay container terminal has been built at Harwich by 2020, these combined Haven Ports will have more than doubled their pre-2010 capacity.
This growth in freight from Haven Ports will have a major impact on transport in the area and it is estimated this scheme will enable the transfer of up to 750,000 lorry freight journeys a year by 2030 from Britain’s roads to the railway. This will help reduce carbon emissions and ease traffic congestion on the road network, particularly on the A14.
Environmental
Rail is also one of the most environmentally friendly forms of transport. Rail freight produces 74% less carbon dioxide than road freight per tonne carried, so the greater transfer of freight from road to rail as a result of this scheme will significantly reduce carbon emissions and help the UK reduce its carbon footprint.
Efficiency
Rail can be a cheaper, quicker and a more practical way for businesses to transport their goods around the country and beyond.
Economic growth
The upgraded rail freight link will improve the competitiveness and encourage economic growth within the Anglia region and across Britain. This project will also make it easier to import and export goods, helping Britain compete more effectively in the global market.
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We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.
Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.
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