Funding for Ely North Junction remodelling study

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Freightliner service travelling through Ely out of the Port of Felixstowe. Photo: LandFox / Shutterstock.com
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Local enterprise partnerships in East Anglia have joined forces to fund a feasibility study into capacity improvement works around Ely, including the remodelling of Ely North Junction.

The study itself will be completed by Network Rail but funding is being provided by the Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough LEP, New Anglia LEP and the Strategic Freight Network. In total, £8.8 million will be provided.

Passenger and freight services travelling between King’s Cross and King’s Lynn, Ipswich and Peterborough and Felixstowe and Nuneaton all converge at Ely. The feasibility study will identify options for relieving this bottleneck and creating additional capacity.

An upgrade of the railway around Ely had been included in Network Rail’s CP5 plans but was put back to CP6 following Sir Peter Hendy’s review of the company.

Announcing the partnership, Elizabeth Truss, MP for South West Norfolk and a member of the Ely Area Taskforce, said: “I am delighted that funding has now been confirmed by the LEPs for the preparatory work on the Ely North rail junction along with the adjacent roads and level crossings.

“This is a project I first raised with the Department for Transport in 2011, meeting rail ministers as well as lobbying the Transport Secretary on the significant benefits of upgrading the rail junction.”