This week, the House of Commons took a decision
to expand Heathrow Airport with an additional runway. This has been a long
running and contentious debate but in the end there was a substantial majority
of MPs from all parties supporting the project. There could be opportunities
for Cornwall by opening up new routes to and from Newquay, improving
business links and attracting more visitors. It is expected that the new runway
at Heathrow could see over 200,000 passengers fly between Newquay and London in
the future, helping to secure the future of Newquay Airport which was once in
doubt.
We are also making progress improving things on
long haul journeys. From the moment I was elected, I fought to get an
upgrade to the “Night Riviera” sleeper service, which has now been introduced.
I am a regular and devoted user of the sleeper service, using it every weekend
to get down to Camborne. I know how important the service can be for businesses
and visitors alike and I am pleased that it will be able to provide more
capacity and better facilities to compete with other forms of transport.
However, the majority of people in Cornwall use
public transport primarily for local journeys and that is where there is more
to do. For me, the key to making things work better is to try to
integrate or join up the bus network with the rail network more effectively
than we have done in the past. This will allow rail and bus timetables to work
in tandem to give people more frequent options to get from one destination to
another.
I have long pressed for a regular and routine 30
minute local train service through Cornwall with buses then providing onward
connections over shorter rural routes to our villages. If we could join
up commercial trunk routes of buses and trains with smaller, local, shuttle
buses travelling shorter distances, you start to get the makings of something
that could really work and you could build more confidence in the public
transport network. This is now being made a reality.
The Department for Transport has also confirmed
that from the summer there will be 29 new Intercity Express trains running on
the London to Penzance Great Western Route, replacing the aged 40
year-old-stock and providing more than 1,000 extra peak time seats. This is
great news for Cornwall.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.