“The needs of the South East region, especially in East Sussex, for a progressive strategy of road, rail and communications development to meet the needs of trade, industry and employment across the South Coast over the next decade will soon take a major step forward as a result of the first years investment in the Transport for South East (TfSE) strategic transport body,” reports Ray Chapman, Co Chairman, East Sussex Rail Alliance.
“We are at that critical moment when we must all come together to support its presentation in months from now to Government for endorsement as a Statutory Body”.
Led from inception by Chairman Keith Glazier, Leader of ESCC, TfSE will speak with one voice on behalf of the local transport authorities within the new authority area – which covers Medway, Kent, Surrey, Brighton and Hove East and West Sussex, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Portsmouth, Southampton and the six Berkshire unitary authorities.
The initial views of key stakeholders on TfSE’s emerging transport strategy are being sought at a number of workshops that took place in January.
As Ray Chapman explains: “We have been striving for a Cross-County boundaries authority that can at last look at the strategic needsof our region of how best we can develop roads, rail and all forms of communication, with decentralised decision taking within our region.
With the promised transparency by TfSE, we will be involved at the local level in setting strategy as well as capital works priorities.”What does this mean is real terms? Once in being, TfSE will be able to define its support for such as the drive and major planning of theSouth Coast trunk road (to bust bottlenecks) and rail networks.
In other words revive and put new impetus into the inter-regional needs of hauliers and road users from Dover (and the Channel Tunnel) to Southampton and beyond, taking in the needs of freight handlers and passengers at sea and airports, rail and bus stations.
Such will start to relieve the pressure on the Capital and enable more employers to move out into the region. “ESRA, in support of rail user groups, has long sought the upgrade of the strategic rail route from Ashford Kent to Southampton as a key driver within the region and a potential major driver in productivity terms for users, as this also provides a new fast service line to the Capital.
At present it appears almost condemned as a Victorian Cinderella railway with minimal investment. The result will also tackle the centric views on investment that prioritise rail into and out of London on almost all investment spends.”The trunk route which stood for years as a key development objective for the length of the South Coast could also be revived as part of the Regional requirement to improve productivity and speed communications.
However, as has already been identified, there is a determination to develop a bus strategy which of itself will spread passenger capacity across the Region, even relieving rail in times of excess demand. As Ray concludes: “We must understand that this will not mean a sudden rash of new road or rail building.
It will mean we will be seeing an overview of what our region requires – and what funding is needed. After all, we are facing a time of uncertainty when we have to increase our output, improve our productivity and be more competitive than ever – to help our Region to thrive even more and give better grade employment and housing – all based on a supportive infrastructure.”