Southern will be provided with 130 new carriages to tackle overcrowding after £80million of government support was announced in the Autumn Statement, which the local MP, Norman Baker, has called a "good news Statement for transport", and something he had been pressing for.
The Autumn Statement included over £1.4billion of investment in railway infrastructure and commuter links, including £80million to help Southern with the procurement of 130 carriages. The new carriages will be used to reduce overcrowding on the busy London to Sussex coast routes, as well as the wider Southern network and will come as welcome relief for local rail passengers who have had to put up with overcrowded carriages for too long, according to the MP.
The Statement (here in full - pdf) also came with the additional benefit for local commuters of seeing the planned rise of RPI+3 being scrapped, in addition to wider investment in the rail network, such as supporting Network Rail to deliver £390million of enhancement and renewal works to improve stations and rail infrastructure, and improve winter resilience.
Norman says: "The provision of 130 new carriages is really good news for all those who use Southern's services, such as my constituents in Lewes, Seaford, Newhaven and Polegate. Coming on top of the 2% reduction in planned rail fares, which I fought hard for, this is bumper good news for local rail travellers."
Norman announced a new allocation of £20million to help bus companies and local authorities buy low carbon buses when he gave the keynotes speech this week at the UK Bus Awards.
Norman says: "Uptake of public transport use is crucial to creating a greener environment, but we need to make public transport greener as well. This fund will get older, more polluting buses off the roads and replace them with greener, more efficient models, providing an even greater environmental case for using them."
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Contact Norman at:
Norman Baker,
23 East Street,
Lewes,
East Sussex,
BN7 2LJ.
Tel: (01273) 480281.
Fax: (01273) 480287.
Email: info
