Jonathan Denby, head of corporate affairs for Greater Anglia, said the region has not yet been able to reap the full benefits of its £1.4 billion investment in new trains because of delays to “critical infrastructure upgrades”.
Top of the list, he said, was work to upgrade rail infrastructure in the Ely area, which would allow more freight and passenger services to run through what is currently a bottleneck.
Those improvements were announced by Rishi Sunak last year after plans for the northern leg of the HS2 rail line were scrapped.
The Ely junction (Image: Network Rail) (Image: Rai Network)
However, since then, the government has failed to confirm funding or timescales for delivery of the scheme.
The last publicly released estimate for the project, in January 2020, suggested it would cost £500m and construction costs, along with inflation, have risen since then.
Jonathan Denby, head of corporate affairs at Greater Anglia (Image: Newsquest)
Mr Denby said: “For the first time ever, we have brand-new trains right across our network which are proving very popular with customers and the wider community.
“Passenger numbers are back above pre-pandemic levels and continuing to rise, so we know the demand is there.
“But at the moment there are limits to the capability of the existing infrastructure which means it’s not possible to put more frequent trains on certain routes.”
“We want to see urgent progression of the Ely area improvements because of the major regional and national benefits they will bring.
“The work would mean capacity for many more freight trains, a doubling of Ely to King’s Lynn and Ipswich to Peterborough services, and for extra Norwich to Cambridge services.
“It was announced in October, so now it’s time to start delivering this vital upgrade.”
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