Treasury forced to take action after our Rail Summit
Co-chaired by the Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Dr Nik Johnson and Better Transport Campaign chief, the Rt Hon Norman Baker, the influential gathering of industry experts discussed how action on Ely rail capacity would be quick to ripple growth out through Cambridgeshire, the wider East, the South-East, the Midlands, and the North, right up into Scotland.
Delegates discussed how the knock-on of futureproofing capacity at Ely would make the most of Government investment already spent on the new station at Soham, and on rail assets in other parts of the country, all made less effective by bottlenecking at Ely. Government money earmarked for Cambridge South, East-West Rail, and Peterborough Station Quarter would also work harder if better joined-up and more frequent services were facilitated by improving Ely.
The summit then triggered a collaborative letter pressing home the value of delivering the Ely Solution was sent to the Chancellor and Transport Secretary Mark Harper to help inform their consideration of which rail improvements to approve in the next funding round.
And it certainly made the difference!
On October 5th an announcement was made by central government committing major investment to transforming Ely Junction, allowing more goods to be transported by freight and removing 98,000 lorries from the road each year.
The rail summit is an great example of how a united joint message can influence real change!