The BRTA response to what needs doing in the East Anglia Region is as follows:

1. Kings Lynn Line redoubling to enable more trains. This should include exploration of portal freight and the reopening of a Kings Lynn-Hunstanton rail link with a southern ‘triangle’; access for direct running to the resort as well be it Stansted-Cambridge-Hunstanton for example. At the south of the railway near Ely, we want a south-west direct curve for Peterborough-Kings Lynn, saving changing at Ely and enabling a more diverse set of rail services to serve the Kings Lynn corridor. The Ely proposed rail-freight bypass off the Soham Line should not be allowed to block these ideas, but should have a double track span over the Kings Lynn Line which takes them and expansion into consideration at the design stage, not a straightjacket.

2. The Ely-Bury St Edmunds Line needs re-doubling and a second platform put on the Soham Station, which BRTA with others called for many years and at £20 million could be doing more business. This especially if a south to west curve at the Newmarket end is installed, enabling a second Ely-Cambridge commuter feed railway off the Soham line.

3. Cambridge-Haverhill, is a must serving a new town, which as was proposed and expanded, promptly had its railway closed! Ideally the line would go onto link at Sudbury for Cambridge-Colchester and another route for freight from Felixstowe for example (capacity feed) as well as commuting to principal towns and rail heads (stations).

4. Stansted Airport is proposed for expansion, a pre-planning demand should be that it invests and works up an extension of the railway from Liverpool Street and Cambridge onwards to link with the Braintree Branch which should be doubled. That would link east and west Essex, enable Cambridge-Stansted-Colchester, enable a loop out of London Liverpool Street-Harlow-Stansted-Braintree-Chelmsford-Stratford and vice versa. In short it is a win, win if support and pre-planning designs can factor the idea in and BRTA sees how the rail alternative could cream traffic off the busy A120 trunk road and a new Parkway Station for the growing Great Dunmow area could also be very useful.

5. Quite simply, reopen the Maldon Branch for commuting and footfall and spend to this town and supports sustainable regeneration cannot happen until it is grasped and implemented, otherwise congestion and land use parking demand conflicts is the order of the day.

6. We would recommend that the former Cambridge-St Ives railway is kept under review with a view to re-railing it as far as one can go. Guided Busway was always a half-baked idea and whilst it as a concept has its fans, it is no substitute for a proper, integrated railway. Linking to Huntingdon would be nice. Cambridge North sits on former Chesterton Junction, but it is quite possible an arrangement akin to the Watford-St Albans line could be considered or at least studied as to connection options out of Cambridge. Let us remember, that if East-West Rail get their way, Cambridge will be linked to Oxford by rail direct as well as interim principal places like Bedford and Milton Keynes (Bletchley).