Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the potential benefits to passenger services in Ipswich of the upgrade of (a) Ely Junction and (b) Haughley Junction.

The Ely Area Capacity Enhancements (EACE) scheme would create capacity to increase trains through the Ely ‘bottle neck’ from 6.5 per hour to 10 trains per hour, doubling passenger services on the Ely-King’s Lynn and Ipswich-Peterborough routes. We anticipate that the EACE scheme will take 98,000 lorry journeys off roads every year, improving road safety and reducing road congestion.