Government pledges to look again at stalled plans for railway upgrade

Government officials have pledged to revisit stalled plans to improve a railway bottleneck which limits how many trains can run in and out of Norfolk and Suffolk.Ministers are set to enter talks with Network Rail about the future of the long-awaited revamp of Ely junction, which has been in the pipeline for many years.These improvements were announced by Rishi Sunak in October after plans for the northern leg of the HS2 rail line were scrapped.

However, there remained a lack of certainty surrounding funding or timescales for the delivery of the scheme.Peter Hendy, the new minister of state for rail, has now committed to meeting with stakeholders in order to advance the project.A spokeswoman for the Department for Transport said: “Transport ministers recognise the benefits the scheme could bring for freight and passenger rail services in East Anglia, including the Cambridge to Norwich route.

“Mr Hendy looks forward to discussing these proposals with National Rail in due course.” Ely junction is important because it links five lines connecting Norwich, Ipswich, Cambridge, Peterborough and Lynn.But it is currently operating at full capacity which limits the opportunity for growth of routes for passenger and cross-country freight services. The last publicly released estimate for the project, in January 2020, suggested it would cost £500m but construction costs, along with inflation, have risen since then.Norfolk and Suffolk MPs have long been campaigning for the improvements.Ben Goldsborough, Labour MP for South Norfolk, said: “We only have one train station in the constituency so it has to work as well as possible.“It’s clear that the Ely area capacity enhancement scheme is needed to take more freight off the roads and give us more trains to Wymondham. I will keep pressing on this.”