12 June 2019
Press Release
ERTA welcomes the new government targets
but believes whilst we need global agreement and reductions commensurate to
reducing emissions and pollution, it is still too little, too late. Moreover,
it fails to see the terrible congestion across the English Regions which
bedevils industry and communities as a whole in time, fuel and cost waste on a
daily basis. It fails to take account that this state of affairs is a direct
result of previous government actions and policies switching in the post war
period from rail to road with mass closures of railways and building new roads
often on top of them.
Any observation of the M1 for example at
Junction 14 shows going north and south indicates approximately 50% of the
traffic is juggernaut lorries ploughing it and the same with the A14 from
Felixstowe. HS2 will not cater for freight at £56 billion and existing tracks
are at capacity. The M1 and A14 meet at Lutterworth with M6 taking the exact
same ratios of traffic to the West Midlands and the M1 to the East Midlands.
There is no east-west rail for 100 miles north of London, we are currently
sending container trains from Felixstowe into, across and out of London via the
West Coast Main Line which is one of the busiest lines in Europe. These trains
take paths which other passenger and other freight by rail could utilise, if we
rectify the lack of an east-west rail and design it to cater for freight from
day one. Just 50 miles of rebuild would enable that from
Cambridge-Bedford-Northampton. Yes, realignments are needed where blockages
exist, but it has to be done if we are to decongest our roads, cut emissions,
cut waste and free up existing railway capacity.
ERTA calls for Government to commit to a
rolling programme of rail reopenings and rebuilds across the English Regions
and new builds between Luton and Northampton and Rugby-Narborough via the M1
corridors of conventional rails, plugging missing gaps and giving modal shift a
real chance.
End of Press Release
Website: https://ertarail.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment