11.07.12
£3.8m European investment for Peterborough rail
The European Parliament has agreed to invest nearly £4m to upgrade Ely North Junction.
The funding to eliminate a key rail bottleneck was announced yesterday in Brussels and will help boost reliability and punctuality of services across the whole of the East of England.
The investment will fund a rail loop east of Ely station to speed up rail freight travelling between Ipswich andPeterborough, campaigners said.
Labour MEP Richard Howitt told the Peterborough Telegraph: “Having fought to get east-west rail services from Felixstowe viaPeterboroughon the priority list for European funding, this is a fantastic success which will help our businesses and improve rail services for everyone.
“This is a project ready to start straight away which the Government has accepted is a ‘critical bottleneck’ and I hope they have the good grace to give credit to the European contribution.
“It is good for the environment to get freight off the road and on to rail, and even better with the region’s busy commuter services benefitting too.”
The whole project, which will see the junction double-tracked, is estimated to cost £10m.
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Image c. Ben Sutherland