Norfolk Chamber and other key stakeholders will be attending the Norfolk Rail Prospectus Workshop, organised by Graham Plant, Cabinet Member for Planning and Transportation and Chloe Smith Norwich North MP, in conjunction with Norfolk County Council on 4th October.
The Prospectus will build on the tremendously successful region-wide prospectus that Local Enterprise Partnerships – backed by local authorities, the rail industry, the Chambers and MPs – delivered to Westminster earlier in the summer.
We are already seeing the results of this. The recent government announcement about rail spending and overarching objectives for the next five years included positive announcements about improving the rail network at Ely, for example, which is vitally important for a number of services including Norwich to Cambridge and King’s Lynn to Cambridge.
Now that the rail industry is developing its detailed spending programmes, and government is renewing the franchises covering the county, we have to follow this up with our detailed requirements.
There will be an opportunity for the business community to reconfirm what is needed on the railways for Norfolk. There is strong backing for ‘Norwich in Ninety’ and half hourly services to King’s Lynn. The workshop will aim to find out what is important elsewhere, and in more detail, to make sure that the railways can meet the needs of Norfolk: to build our economic strengths and capitalise on what the county has to offer.
The Prospectus is for the long term, and the stakeholders seek to maintain a unified, passionate and focused campaign which best positions us at the right time.
