“It's time the government remembered that we too in East Anglia have an overcrowded, dirty and unreliable railway service - worse in fact than on the lines where the new trains will soon run.  It’s an outrage that we should get so little for the huge amount we pay.”

Ben Gummer, the Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Ipswich, has today hit out at the Government’s announcement that of the 1,400 "Super Express" railway carriages being built, in the biggest rolling stock contract since the rail industry was privatised, none will be used on the Ipswich to London line.

Ben said: "Once again Ipswich and the East have been forgotten.
 
"At last the government has got round to ordering new trains for long-distance routes - not that we will see them coming to Platforms 1 and 2 at Ipswich station.  Because once again Ipswich and the East have been forgotten.  New trains will be whizzing to the North and West, and even to Cambridge and Peterborough.  No doubt we'll get the tired old rolling stock it will replace, the usual hand-me-downs that we have all got so used to.
 
"It's time the government remembered that we too in East Anglia have an overcrowded, dirty and unreliable railway service - worse in fact than on the lines where the new trains will soon run.  It’s an outrage that we should get so little for the huge amount we pay.  Sometimes it really does seem that just because we're not blessed with a few more Labour seats, we might as well not exist.
 
"I know that this is a historic problem, and I can't promise that we'll be able to extend the programme if we win power, given how empty the treasury will be.  But I will at least fight for a better railway service, something on which the current MP has been silent.  And next time there is a major rail programme, I'll do my best to make sure Ipswich and the East is on the list, not forgotten as it has been for years and years."
 

11th April 2009