Peter Aldous MP calls for more investment for east coast lines

An MP has called for investment to cut journey times on a rail route that has been unchanged since it opened in 1858.

Conservative Peter Aldous, who represents Waveney, used a debate in Parliament to call for upgrades to the Wherry and East Suffolk branch lines.

He said journey times from Lowestoft to Ipswich had not reduced since it opened 164 years ago.

"These are vital economic arteries serving growing communities and deserve investment," he said.

The Wherry Line runs between Norwich and Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth.

Despite "significant improvements" to both east Suffolk and east Norfolk's branch lines in the past 12 years, the MP said he was concerned that "perhaps attention on the network has been diverted elsewhere".

"If we make the right decisions and secure the right investment now we can bring major benefit and job opportunities to communities all along the Wherry and East Suffolk rail lines," he said.

Mr Aldous said he wanted to see Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth linked more directly into the improved London and East Midland networks.

With new faster trains operating on the lines since 2019, he said timetables also needed re-assessing.

"If you look at the speed of the service, the East Suffolk line, the time it takes to get from Lowestoft to Ipswich, that is the same as literally when the line was first opened back in 1858," he said.

"I think today we can do a lot better."

In response, Transport Minister Wendy Morton MP said she understood the importance of connectivity to Lowestoft and the call for direct services into London.

She said there were "a number of other factors under consideration to facilitate this", including the fact the East Suffolk line was constrained by single line sections, as well as many level crossings.

She said she had asked officials at the transport department to request that Greater Anglia "continues to look for opportunities to introduce a direct service in the future".

A Greater Anglia spokeswoman said: "We welcome Peter Aldous' support for recent improvements made to local rail services and his highlighting of the further steps forward that might be achieved if rail infrastructure upgrades could be secured.

"We are committed to continuing to deliver an excellent service on both the Wherry Lines and the East Suffolk Line, building on the very positive impact of our new trains and improvements to service frequency in recent years."

She said the company was "continuing to look for opportunities" to introduce a direct train service to London but there "are no indications of when that might be".

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