Andrew Duff proposes new Trans-European Network for Eastern England

12.00.00am GMT Thu 10th Feb 2000

Andrew Duff, Liberal Democrat Euro-MP for Eastern England, has proposed an up-graded programme of road and rail links for the East of England. He has written to the Vice-President of the European Commission, Loyola de Palacio, to present his proposals as part of a general review of Trans-European Networks (TENs). He has also written to John Prescott, Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions.

Andrew Duff is critical of the existing 'nominal' TENs road project that attempts to link the ports of Felixstowe and Harwich to the West of England and Ireland.

"Over 40% of British overseas goods travel via Felixstowe, and existing road and rail access is highly congested," Duff has told the Commissioner.

"The fact of the matter is, however, that there are no government plans to up-grade the A14 trunk route to motorway standards, and that present plans are concerned exclusively to relieve some of the several existing bottlenecks. What is badly needed, instead, is to move much of the bulk freight from road to rail.

Andrew Duff supports the existing East-West rail project, but is concerned that its relatively small scale and its concentration only on the passenger railway network west of Cambridge via Bedford to Oxford will not provide a sufficient solution to the region's infrastructure problems.

Duff also raises the question of the cluster of hi-tech industries based on Cambridge: "Here we have one of Europe's main centres of new technology, whose successful continued development partly depends upon sorting out its traffic congestion."

The MEP proposes three criteria for the reform of the TENs policy:

1. All TENs must be multi-modal. This will force member states to overcome their in-built resistance to the development of railways.

2. All TENs must try to offer solutions to the traffic congestion of the regions through which they pass. This would allow, for example, for a modern roads and railways or light-rail, trams or bus systems to feed into and off the main East-West road and rail route.

3. All TENs must contribute to the economic priorities of the regions through which they pass. This would enable the Eastern England TEN to contribute to the development of the Cambridge phenomenon.