Business and transport leaders from the Cambridgeshire area are pressing ministers to agree improvements to Ely Junction following a summit to highlight the benefits of the stalled scheme.
Hosted by Cambridgeshire and Peterborough metro mayor Dr Nik Johnson and co-chaired by former transport minister Norman Baker, the Cambridge rail summit made the case that ‘the Ely Solution holds what is perhaps the most vital key to growth across Great Britain’.
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority said the Ely Junction bottleneck, ‘where five lines jostle into one single track’, is now viewed as one of the chief impediments to UK growth.
A letter from the summit to be sent to chancellor Jeremy Hunt and transport secretary Mark Harper ‘to help inform their consideration of which rail improvements to approve in the next funding round’, is available online for representatives of other organisations to sign.
It accompanies an investment prospectus detailing the benefits of improving capacity at Ely – ‘for example, £4.89 for every £1 spent, 100,000 lorries off the road annually, and almost 3000 extra freight services to and from the UK’s busiest container port each year’.
Delegates at the summit were said to have discussed how improvements at Ely would make the most of government spending on rail assets elsewhere, which are ‘made less effective by bottlenecking at Ely’.
Dr Johnson said: ‘The public money spent on rail in many areas can yield a much better return if Ely Junction is widened to release freer and more frequent and reliable rail traffic.
‘The cost-benefit ratio of fixing the Ely pinch-point is an incredible return of £4.89 back for every £1 spent. It’s a win-win investment with quantifiable reward far beyond the opportunity that will be felt for decades by people and communities across the country.’
Cllr Liz Leffman, interim chair of England’s Economic Heartland (EEH), said: ‘The rail capacity improvements needed at Ely are of national significance. The scheme is an important connector for the economies of the Midlands and North and provides significant potential to relieve congestion on strategic roads while reducing emissions caused by HGV journeys which could more appropriately be made via rail.’
The news comes as communities secretary Michael Gove's Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) is reported to be drawing up proposals to build as many as 250,000 new homes in the Cambridge area over the next two decades.
The ambition is to turn Cambridge into the UK's silicon valley and boost growth in the life sciences and technology sectors.
Summit speakers and panellists included Steve Beel, CEO of the new Freeport East at Felixstowe; Beth West, CEO of East West Rail; Jonathan Denby from Greater Anglia; Alex Roy, head of policy, at Manchester Airports Group; Helen Fallon from EEH; Andy Summers, CEO of Transport East; and Jess Cunningham, the strategic transport adviser for the University of Cambridge.
