Member

With rail freight demand growing strongly, increasing the capacity of the network is vital. Amendment 68 would require the rail strategy to include Ely junction as a key capacity constraint for freight as well as for passengers, which would hardwire this into the system and the long-term decisions this Bill is designed to support. That is necessary because, as with so many transport projects in the east of England, such as the A47, this Government have chosen to pause the Ely scheme and cut the funding. Instead, in the spending review Ministers backed projects with much lower cost-benefit ratios, with the result that passengers continue to suffer from unreliable and less frequent services, more freight is required to use roads and infrastructure fails to meet the demand.