The recent news about the East / West rail consortium's bid to link Norwich with Oxford , Milton Keynes, Bedford and beyond is strongly welcomed by the Eastern England Green Party. Not only would this line bring many (and much needed) jobs to Eastern England, but it will also remove traffic from our ever more congested roads. It makes sense to invest more in the rail network, as fuel becomes more expensive, because more can of course be moved by rail with less friction, thus removing numerous lorries from the roads.
Nevertheless, I am concerned that the improved links envisaged here may be used as an excuse by the rail companies to increase their already astronomical fares. In addition, as has already been demonstrated by the recent high speed rail link from London to Leeds , stops in between are often left off the route and other train services become slower as a result. In my opinion, these are good reasons for continuing to lobby the government to re-regulate the train companies.
In other words: let's build the rail link envisaged here. But let's do it under a renationalised rail system, not under the current un-joined-up fat-cat-dominated privatised rail system that successive Labour and Conservative/LibDem governments have left us with.
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