Full Steam Ahead for £8 million rail route funding

Eight million pounds of European funding has been provisionally allocated to develop the Felixstowe to Nuneaton rail route, it was reported today (17th July) at the Annual General Meeting of the East of England Regional Assembly (EERA) in Hertford.

The application for funding was approved by EU Member State government officials in Brussels this week and will go before a Committee of MEPs for final sign-off in September.

The rail line between Felixstowe and Nuneaton is part of a significant European transport route and improvements will allow more freight to be shifted from the port by rail, reducing congestion on the A14.

Cllr Derrick Ashley, Chairman of the Regional Planning Panel, said “This is great news for the East of England. It will boost economic competitiveness and growth by delivering a reliable and efficient rail route; it will reduce carbon emissions and improve safety, security and health by making the roads and transport networks safer.

“The Assembly has worked with partners across the region and our MEPs to realise this project and it has paid off. The East of England’s Brussels Office provided both detailed technical information and crucial intelligence to those working on the bid and provided advice on the application and the lobbying.”

EERA has driven the process throughout with significant lobbying of Network Rail, the Department of Transport, the European Commission and through the organisation of a number of technical meetings and high level political summits which ensured the timely submission of the bid.

The regional support for this application was commended by both the European Commission and Department for Transport. It is hoped that this route will bid for European funding for works planned post 2013.

Two other projects were also provisionally approved which are located in the East of England – one to develop the London Gateway Port and the other for ICT measures to reduce congestion and accidents on the A14. These three projects together will see a total of £30 million of EU funding spent on transport in the region.

Ends
Notes to Editors:
For further information or to arrange an interview with an EERA spokesperson, please contact Claire Sefton, Communications Officer on
tel: 01284 729427 mob: 07920257940 email: Claire.sefton@eera.gov.uk

European Parliament

Trans-European Network – Transport (TEN-T)

The TEN-T scheme is the main source of European funding for transport infrastructure. Funding is split between the Multi-Annual Programme 2007-13 (80-85% of the budget and worth over 6 billion euros) and the annual funding rounds (112 million euros in 2007).

Felixstowe-Nuneaton rail line

Upgrading the Felixstowe-Nuneaton rail line has widespread support from the rail industry, environment groups, the East of England and East and West Midlands Development Agencies

One of the main benefits of upgrading the Felixstowe to Nuneaton rail line is to allow more freight to be carried by rail from the ports of Felixstowe and Harwich to the north and west. This would avoid the existing and congested rail route via North London and may in turn create opportunities for more passenger services into and out of London on the Great Eastern Line and on the Ipswich – Peterborough route.

There are five main elements to upgrading the Felixstowe-Nuneaton rail line as follows:

Gauge enhancement between Felixstowe and Peterborough (funding committed by Hutchison Port through a section 106 agreement)
Gauge enhancements between Peterborough and Nuneaton
Capacity improvements between Felixstowe and Nuneaton to cater for additional rail freight movements
Capacity improvements between Felixstowe and Nuneaton to facilitate an improvement in passenger train services to address future travel demands arising from the planned growth in housing and jobs in both the East of England and the East Midlands; and
Removing speed restrictions imposed on heavy freight trains on the cross country route between Ipswich and Peterborough.

Gauge enhancement would allow taller international containers to be carried on the Felixstowe-Nuneaton rail route.

East of England Regional Assembly
1. The East of England Regional Assembly is independent of Government and is not a Government agency or quango. It represents the regional interests of people living and working in the East of England.

2. The Assembly has 105 members of which two thirds are elected councillors (from the 52 local authorities in the region) and one third are stakeholder representatives. Its meetings are open to the media and general public.

3. The Assembly is the designated Regional Planning Body for the East of England until March 2010 when it will cease to exist.

4. During 2008/09 EERA’s work included:
£1 billion bid for investment in public transport and roads across the region including final stretch of A11 dualling
Campaigned against a second runway at Stansted Airport
Held EEDA to account at six Economic Summits
Influenced European funding programmes worth £500 million to support employment, skills, climate change and low carbon economic growth
Delivery of 328 training courses to develop thousands of local authority employees and councillors in the region
For more information on EERA, see the website at www.eera.gov.uk

East of England Regional Planning Panel
Cllr Derrick Ashley (Chairman of RPP), Conservative, 01992 556571
Cllr Alan Crystall (Panel Group Leader), Liberal Democrat, 01702 474047
Cllr Roy Davis (Panel Group Leader), Labour, 01582 730939
Corrine Meakins (Panel Group Leader), Community Stakeholder, 07960 189994