Anne Main MP has called on rail minister, Paul Maynard, to haul in Network Rail (NR) over its lack of answers on the controversial railfreight site.
‘For years Network Rail has been silent on this issue. Even now at the last moment, we still have no idea as to how freight will operate on the same line as the passenger services,’ said Anne. ‘Even as recently as December last year we were told that we would have sight of the scheduling strategy shortly. Over 6 months later, we still no idea of how the railfreight interchange will work in practice.’
Mrs Main said that ‘this latest episode is the mere tip of the iceberg when it comes to Network Rail silence. The Radlett railfreight has been an issue for over 10 years and we’ve never had answers. I believe that the lack of preparation and timetabling seriously calls into question the viability of railfreight. I’ve now asked the minister to call in Network Rail to get answers.’
In her letter, the St Albans MP said St Albans is ‘on the brink of an extremely costly strategic rail freight interchange (SRFI)’ with ‘absolutely no evidence of how this will work in practice, and the impact that this will have on passenger services.’
Anne went on to say that ‘St Albans commuters have already suffered due to recent train failures and infrastructure upgrades,’ and that Network Rail was ‘negligent in its duty’ of putting passengers first. Mrs Main called on Network Rail ‘to fully explain [to the minister] how they [NR] plan to deliver freight and passenger services along an extremely busy stretch of the Midland Mainline.’
Watch: Anne Main, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Bangladesh, talks about the Rohingya crisis and urges support for @DECappeal pic.twitter.com/FFL0lq8O0A
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