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Email to a friendCotswold MP, Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, has expressed utter dismay at the decision by the Office of Rail Regulator (ORR) to exclude the doubling of the Kemble to Swindon railway line scheme for at least another seven years.
On hearing about the outcome of the decision, Mr Clifton-Brown said: “This decision is condemning rail users between Cheltenham and Swindon to an unacceptable service for the next seven years, at a time when major expansion in those two towns are planned.”
Mr Clifton Brown continued: “It also sends a bad signal at a time when we are trying to persuade people to abandon their cars and to use trains instead.
It closes off the possibility of building a new station to the north of Swindon.
It fails to provide a diversionary route when repairs are carried out in the Bristol and Severn Bridge areas. Without the access to a double rail track, trains will be completely blocked from travelling when essential repairs are carried out, inevitably leading to even greater delay at weekends.”
The MP said that he will vigorously continue to persuade the Government and Network Rail to provide the comparatively small funding needed to carry out this essential upgrade.
“This government have presided over an unacceptable number of rural Post Office closures, doctor’s dispensaries are under threat, and this decision by the ORR is yet another example of this Government’s failing the people of Gloucestershire.”
Source: Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP (Cotswold)
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