News

Norwich rail campaign gathers pace

Norwich Railway Station

A campaign to improve train services from Norwich to London is gathering pace with people signing up to an online petition in their hundreds.

The Norwich in 90 campaign is calling for a journey time of an hour and a half between Norwich and the capital, as well as a raft of other improvements, including increased capacity and newer and cleaner trains.

A petition can be signed online and the councils, organisations and businesses behind the campaign are calling for members of the public to add their views and support.

So far almost 1,000 people have signed up online.

Adrian Gunson, Norfolk County Council's cabinet member for transport, said he hoped the public would use the forthcoming election to bring the issue to the attention of high-ranking politicians.

He said: “I'm delighted that so many people have taken the time to sign up and to back the efforts of the county council, business people and Shaping Norfolk's Future to get improvements to the rail service to London.

“It's disappointing that a city the size of Norwich should have a service that's not up to a standard for its needs.”

The Evening News is backing the campaign and urging readers to add their support too.

The campaign is also calling for extra capacity on trains to combat overcrowding, in particular on the section of the line in Essex and nearer London.

This week new figures were released by the Department for Transport which showed that National Express East Anglia was running an average 10 trains each week that do not have enough carriages.

However, the figure represents just 0.09pc of the company's trains and is much lower than some of the country's other train operators.

A National Express East Anglia spokesperson said the company supported the Norwich in 90 campaign.

They said: “We support the initiative of Norfolk County Council and partners in seeking to secure further improvements to the Norwich to London mainline.

“Their aspirations match those we announced at last year's Shaping Norfolk's Future conference where we outlined a new vision for the Norwich to London line, including quicker journey times, new intercity trains and improvements to the route infrastructure.

“As part of our service improvement plan we are introducing a total of 188 new and refurbished train carriages across our network.

“This includes 68 extra carriages on the Great Eastern main line route, which will all be in service by December 2010, providing additional seats at key stations such as Colchester and Chelmsford.

“This will help to free-up extra capacity on the existing Norwich to London services and we also have plans to introduce a faster Norwich to London morning peak service from December.”

Do you have a story about the Norwich in 90 campaign? Contact reporter Kim Briscoe on 01603 772419 or email kim.briscoe@archant.co.uk.