Media centre

Wednesday 26 May 2010

HAVE YOUR SAY ON £35M IPSWICH RAIL UPGRADE

Region & Route:

| Eastern: Anglia

| Eastern

Network Rail is inviting people to have their say on plans for a £35m investment in Ipswich’s railway that will ultimately take up to 750,000 lorry journeys off the road every year.

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. Designs are under way for 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 line and Great Eastern main line (£35m) 
• Two 775m loops east of Ely station to facilitate better handling of trains through the junctions at Ely (£18m)

Now the public has the opportunity to find out more about the scheme and to provide their comments – in person, by post or online. 

Andrew Munden, route director for Network Rail, said: "We want as many people as possible to find out more about this exciting project. Either in person, by post or online, you can have your say on our plans that will take up to 750,000 lorry journeys off the road every year by 2030, reducing traffic congestion, improving road safety and reducing carbon emissions by around three-quarters.”

Adrian Cannard, Head of Planning, East of England Local Government Association, added: “This is great news for the East of England, which has been lobbying hard for this improvement. Moving much more freight by rail is vital if we are to boost the economy whilst reducing impacts on our roads and the environment.”

Today, Anglia’s freight trains have to travel down the busy Great Eastern main line and through London to reach the Midlands, North West and Scotland. Once complete in 2014, these rail 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 that congestion on the A14 alone costs the region £80m each year.

The online questionnaire is available 8–22 June 2010 by clicking ‘have your say’ on www.networkrail.co.uk/felixstowe-nuneaton. People can express their views in person from Tuesday 8th to Thursday 10th June at a public exhibition inside Ipswich’s Corn Exchange where Network Rail will display the plans and find out what people think. For those with no time to talk, postage-paid questionnaires will be available at the exhibition so written comments can be submitted.

Network Rail will seek the public’s views again in late summer before final plans are submitted in 2011. Work on the scheme is due to start in 2012 and will be completed by 2014.