Asked by: Lord Barker of Battle (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have for further improvements to, and investment in, the A21 road over the next five years.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
Highways England currently has five improvement schemes on the A21 planned in the next six to twelve months:
To inform decisions about investment schemes in the period 2020 to 2025, under the second Road Investment Strategy, the Government is using the evidence it has gathered about local priorities such as the A21. Those decisions will be confirmed in late 2019.
Asked by: Lord Barker of Battle (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress has been made on proposals to electrify the Bexhill to Ashford railway line; and when they expect a new direct fast service to London from Bexhill to commence.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
Development work is underway on a new connection at Ashford between High Speed 1 and the Marshlink line, with the aim of improving journey times in the Hastings area. Network Rail reports that work is 80% complete at the design stage. The delivery of the new connection is subject to both identifying a feasible option and funding being secured for it. Design is expected to be complete in January 2019 and will be followed by estimating activity and completion of the business case in February 2019.
Electrification of the railway between Ore and Ashford forms Phase 3 of the High Speed to Hastings & Bexhill initiative (the railway between Bexhill and Ore is already electrified to 750v DC). Currently no funding has been provided for the development of this phase, however bi-mode rolling stock can deliver the desired journey time reductions without incurring the high costs and disruption of electrification.
Asked by: Lord Barker of Battle (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of improvements made to the A21 road since 2014; and whether such improvements have resulted in a reduction in traffic delays.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
Highways England regularly monitors the performance of the Strategic Road Network to ensure its efficient operation and performance.
The A21 Tonbridge to Pembury improvement scheme started construction in Spring 2015 and was completed in summer 2017.
The impact of the completed scheme, which is expected to reduce congestion and improve journey times, will be studied next year (2019) as part of Highways England’s programme of Post Opening Project Evaluation. This will consider journey times and other features of the performance on this section of the A21.