Local MP and Lib Dem Shadow Transport Secretary, Norman Baker, has set out plans to reopen the railway line linking Lewes and Uckfield.
The development comes as part of radical Lib Dem plans to revitalise the railways by improving and reopening rail lines and stations.
The party will set up a Rail Expansion Fund of nearly £3bn from which councils and transport authorities can bid for money to pay for rail improvement and expansion projects.
This fund will come from cuts to the major roads budget.
Norman Baker commented:
"The Liberal Democrats will transform the railways with the biggest expansion since the Victorian age.
"This package will have huge benefits for communities across the country, including our own area, where the Lewes - Uckfield line is set to reopen if the Lib Dems are in a position of power after the election.
"High Speed Rail will play an important part in Britain's future transport network, but smaller schemes like this will bring tremendous economic, social and environmental benefits for our local area.
"The reopening of the Lewes - Uckfield line is something I have campaigned for locally for over twenty years. It is vitally needed, not just to link the two towns again, but also as a key building block in providing an alternative to the heavily congested Brighton main line."
Liberal Democrats will set up a £2.94bn Rail Expansion Fund from which councils and transport authorities can bid for money to pay for rail improvement and expansion projects. This is paid for by cutting part of the Major Roads budget.
Despite often stating that it is impossible to build your way out of congestion, Labour continues to pour billions of pounds into overspent major road schemes. Government analysis shows that new road schemes can increase traffic by 8-10% in a year.
At the same time, greener alternatives to driving are becoming less viable. Rail fares have increased by 13% in real terms since 1997 while the cost of motoring has declined by 14%.
In July 2008, the Government re-announced a £6bn programme to go ahead between 2008/9 and 2013/14, 'Britain's Transport Infrastructure - Motorways and Major Trunk Roads'. This is in addition to the £3bn allocated through Regional Funding Allocations for regional priorities. We will reduce the former: the £6bn programme which has mostly been used for motorway widening and hard shoulder running projects.
The schemes funded out of the £6bn budget which are already under construction or are due to begin construction before the 2010/11 General Election will be fully funded. We will cut the remaining budget by 90%, and set aside £480m for our policy to cut rail fares. The remaining £2.95bn will be redirected into a Rail Expansion Fund. There will still be a residual pot for roads of around £380m; other schemes in the programme will have to be reassessed under stricter environmental and social criteria in order to receive funding.
Local authorities and integrated transport authorities will bid for money from the Rail Expansion Fund and bids will be assessed under a number of criteria, such as how much money the bidder proposes to contribute and the carbon reductions which would be achieved. We have drawn up a list of rail improvements that would be suitable for receiving money from the fund; these have been divided into an 'A' list of projects that are most desirable and/or ready to go and a 'B' list of longer term investments. The lists are not definitive and some projects that are currently not priorities may be given priority depending on details of bids received. Not every single one of these projects will turn out to be financially viable but we will aim to do as many of the listed projects as possible. The rail improvements are listed in the attached appendix.
The schemes already under construction or beginning construction before 2010/2011 have had £2.2bn allocated to them, which leaves £3.8bn of the £6bn major roads budget still available over a Parliament. We will cut this budget by 90% and allocate £480m of this for cutting rail fares by RPI-1, which leaves £2.9bn for investing in rail improvements over a Parliament. As this is a spending switch entirely within a department, these figures do not appear in our main manifesto costing. As this switch does not change overall departmental spending limits there is no impact on devolved administration budgets.
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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
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