A campaign and petition calling for faster, more reliable rail services to be built into the new Greater Anglia rail franchise launched on Tuesday. 

Visit www.shapingnorfolksfuture.org.uk to sign our petition, today.

Campaign Support

The 'Norwich in Ninety' campaign is backed by business and council leaders, who are calling for as many individuals and organisations as possible to join them in pressing for across the board improvements, but with special focus on the flagship Inter-City service between Norwich and London Liverpool Street.

This campaign, which has already received wide support from business builds on the continuing Regional Cities East campaign to improve services along the length of the Great Eastern Mainline.

Improvements

Currently, the 115 mile journey from London to Norwich takes around 1hr 50mins. Birmingham is similar in distance (118 miles) but can be reached from London in only 1hr 23 mins, while trains can cover the 180 miles to York in only nine minutes longer (1hr 59 mins) than it takes to get to Norwich.

The Norwich in Ninety campaign calls for London line improvements in the new franchise to include:

A ninety-minute journey time between Norwich and London.

• more reliable services, improving upon recent performance that has been poor compared with similar routes. 
• new spacious, clean and comfortable Inter-City style trains, maintaining the new wi-fi service, and providing an office on the move for business passengers, while improving journey times and reliability. 
• more train capacity to overcome peak hour crowding, particularly at the southern end of the route - but without down-grading to commuter-style carriages. 

The campaign also seeks improvements at stations generally, including better car parking, high quality on-station facilities and a better general environment for passengers. 

It also recognises that to secure the levels of investment needed, the franchise will need to be longer than ten years. 

Absolutely Critical 

Mark Hodges, chairman of Shaping Norfolk's Future and executive director of Aviva, said: "A faster and more reliable rail service to London is absolutely critical for Norwich and Norfolk to remain competitive as business locations. That is why securing improvements to the service is such a high priority for Shaping Norfolk's Future.

"It is really important that as many people get behind this campaign as possible as we need to send a clear message to the Department of Transport about the improvements we want to see."

The event will: 

• publicise letters to Lord Adonis from key organisations and encourage others to follow suit. 
• launch a petition, which will is available in printed form and on-line, initially via Shaping Norfolk's Future website:  www.shapingnorfolksfuture.org.uk

Visit www.shapingnorfolksfuture.org.uk to sign our petition, today.