Network Rail is upgrading the route from Felixstowe to Nuneaton via Ely, Peterborough and Leicester. Jacobs Engineering will work with Network Rail to design the two major elements needed to increase capacity between Ipswich and Peterborough:

• A new 1km stretch of track, or ‘chord’, north of Ipswich goods yard, linking the East Suffolk and Great Eastern lines (£35m)
• Two 775m loops east of Ely station to facilitate better regulation of trains through the junctions at Ely (£18m)

Today, Anglia’s freight trains have to travel down the busy Great Eastern main line, through London and up the West Coast main line to reach the Midlands, North West and Scotland.

Once complete, these improvements will provide more direct journeys for freight trains travelling from the Port of Felixstowe to the Midlands, North West, and Scotland, and the potential for faster journeys to Yorkshire.

Network Rail and Jacobs will now work on the design of the scheme and seek the local community’s views during 2010 before any work goes ahead. Work on the scheme is due to start in 2012 and be completed by 2014.