Smith and Pendlington welcome first meeting of Norwich in Ninety task force

 

The Norwich in Ninety task force, set up by the chancellor in response to the strong local campaign from East Anglia to improve our rail service, today met for the first time.

The minister for rail, Stephen Hammond, hosted the first meeting.

Chloe Smith, MP for Norwich North, who led the East Anglian Rail Prospectus campaign on behalf of all MPs in four counties, and Mark Pendlington, transport lead of the New Anglia LEP, will co-chair the task force.

Chloe said: ""This taskforce is a real achievement. It builds on the work we have already done in drawing up the East Anglian Rail Prospectus, and allows for the business case and all the necessary detail now to be drawn up to get us to 'Norwich In Ninety'. This will give train passengers in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex faster, more reliable and better quality journeys in the years to come. It will involve upgrades to both tracks and trains and I expect that much of the 'shopping list' will be seen in the next franchise, as the campaign has always hoped. I'm proud we were able to deliver on the campaign in this way and pleased that the Chancellor and the Department for Transport all recognise the need to invest in East Anglia.

“The first meeting was a strong start. You can't get any infrastructure improvements overnight and so there is a lot of detailed work to do, which is a natural follow-on from the passionate campaign we have run to get this far. We will continue to work hard to gain benefits for all three counties on the route."

 

Mark said: "We had an excellent first meeting of the Taskforce with the Transport Minister. The good news is that already we have momentum with the project, and we are looking ahead to what we want to achieve in 2014. Norwich in Ninety is our goal and detailed work has now begun on how best to deliver that. All ideas are welcome and we will be keeping everyone updated with progress. But for the moment, it's so far so good."

The task force aims to agree the improvements required to both track and trains to reduce the journey time between Norwich and London.

The members of the task force will be:

• Chloe Smith MP – Co-Chair, representing stakeholders across Norfolk


• Ben Gummer MP – representing stakeholders across Suffolk


• Priti Patel MP – representing stakeholders across Essex


• Richard Schofield, Anglia Route Managing Director, Network Rail


• Jonathan Denby, Head of Corporate Affairs, Greater Anglia


• Mark Pendlington- Co-Chair, Transport Spokesman, New Anglia LEP


• David Burch, Director of Policy, Essex Chamber of Commerce


• Roger Jones, Deputy Director – Rail Network Outcomes, DfT


• James Conway, London & South East Rail Strategy Manager, DfT


• Simon Gimson, Lead Negotiator – Greater Anglia Direct Award, DfT