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News
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Secretary of State’s Announcement on Long Term Road and Rail Capacity in the East of England
Author: WARG Administrator
Date: 01 Feb 2008
The announcement from the Secretary of State, Ruth Kelly, on long term road and rail capacity in the East of England, brings forward plans for work covering the M11 upgrades (between junctions 6 and 8) and West Anglia Main Line upgrades between Liverpool Street station and Cambridge in order to meet the demands of new housing and Stansted Airport growth.
The Transport Secretary asked Network Rail to, "develop and bring forward proposals for enhancing the West Anglia Main Line. This work should examine the case for further enhancements, to provide for longer term capacity and service improvements, in the context of Network Rail's recent Greater Anglia Route Utilisation Strategy (RUS)".
This includes looking at a potential four-tracking option from Tottenham Hale to south of Cheshunt. Ideally the West Anglia Routes Group would like four-tracking from Copper Mill Junction to Broxbourne, however, the announcement is a positive development to work from, as there will be opportunity to lobby for extensions. The timing is also positive:
"The anticipated timescales for this assessment are for necessary development work and powers to be completed within railway Control Period 4 (2009-14), with a view to targeting delivery in Control Period 5 (2014-19)".
This announcement linked to the Stansted Generation 2 planning application, which noted that, following consultation responses (including from WARG) around a proposal to only upgrade to three tracks, four tracking is the preferred option for providing additional rail capacity to the airport, with an additional line and extra platform also proposed.
