Group Welcomes Rail Freight Route Upgrade

 Despite very considerable temporary road traffic disruption due to road bridge closures and the cancellation of many weekend train services the LEPG has welcomed the massive investment in the Birmingham to Felixstowe rail route to increase its freight handling capacity. Network Rail is investing millions of pounds in upgrading the track, signalling and structures to increase the loading gauge of the route to handle more freight trains, larger wagons and particularly larger containers.

 This is part of a much wider scheme that will see similarly upgraded routes linking Southampton, Reading, Oxford, Birmingham and Hams Hall and other locations that will reduce the growth in HGV journeys by over 750,000 per annum by 2030 and CO2 emissions by 74% in comparison. “Certainly some household adjoining the line will experience more frequent freight train movements and the disruption during its construction is inconvenient” says Mike Lee of LEPG “But movement of both people and freight by rail offers a vast improvement in terms of the overall environment and road safety; over 3,000 people a year are killed on our roads and hundreds of thousands are injured. Common sense is returning to our transport system after fifty years of retrenchment, destruction and despair, it is an investment to be welcomed”.

 See www.networkrail.co.uk for further information.