Report finds Ely rail junction upgrade will take 100000 lorries off the …
A new report has found that improvements to a rail junction in Ely[1] would take around 100,000 lorry journeys off the road per year. The findings are part of an attempt to persuade the government to upgrade the bottleneck.
Keeping Trade on Track said that improving the junction would also double passenger services on routes across East Anglia. They added that it would allow six extra freight trains a day to use the line and reduce carbon emissions.
Network Rail said the junction signal and level crossing improvements would take six years to deliver. They estimated that the work would cost around £466 million in total.
Dr Nik Johnson, Mayor of Cambridgeshire[3] & Peterborough[4], said[5]: “Ely means business. Open up Ely, and you open up a world of opportunity for global Britain.
“Unblocking Ely will enable passengers and freight to move freely not just through the East but through the Midlands and the North, with benefits surging throughout the UK. Nearer home, the junction is pivotal to squeezing the most out of the investment already made in new stations at Soham and Cambridge South, and in regenerating the Fenland train stations.
“It is a must for any reopening of the Wisbech line, for boosting services between King’s Lynn and London, Norwich and Cambridge, and getting Newmarket[6] looped in. There’s tremendous public backing for this high-reward and climate-friendly investment which would make life better for hundreds of thousands of people in many parts of the country.
“For too long, UK growth has been fettered by this problem and now is the time for action. Open Ely and open all the world.”
You can read the full report here[7].
References
- ^ Ely (www.cambridge-news.co.uk)
- ^ Coach service set to link Cambridge and Amsterdam with tickets from £30 (www.cambridge-news.co.uk)
- ^ Cambridgeshire (www.cambridge-news.co.uk)
- ^ Peterborough (www.cambridge-news.co.uk)
- ^ said (eeh-prod-media.s3.amazonaws.com)
- ^ Newmarket (www.cambridge-news.co.uk)
- ^ here (eeh-prod-media.s3.amazonaws.com)