Businesses urged to have their say on Coventry - Leicester - Nottingham rail route
November 2022
- Have your say on reconnecting Coventry, Leicester, and Nottingham
- National Highways wants to hear from you
- Join us for our Nottingham Transport Summit
- Cash boost to explore improvements to Derby Road
- Shocking new figures on delays on the A5
- New Engine Room episode!
Have your say on reconnecting Coventry, Leicester, and Nottingham by rail!
We have launched a survey for local businesses regarding connecting Coventry, Leicester, and Nottingham by rail.
Our survey builds on a report last year and will help us make the case to the government for further investment on the route.
- Journeys between Coventry and Leicester must currently change at Nuneaton, making for a longer and a more delay-prone journey
- Just 3% of those journeys are made by rail, compared to 30% of trips between Coventry and Birmingham.
- Connecting these cities could lead to more people leaving their cars at home, and greater interconnectivity between the cities.
The survey takes just a few minutes to complete and is linked below. It closes on Friday 11 November.
National Highways wants to hear from you
Residents and road users are invited to have their say on designs for a new multi-million-pound bypass that will tackle congestion along a crucial trade corridor through the East Midlands.
National Highways wants to upgrade a stretch of single carriageway on the A46 in Nottinghamshire which is used by, on average, 17,000 drivers every day as the key Trans-Midlands Trade Corridor connecting the M5 with Humber Ports.
The proposed A46 Newark bypass will create a continuous dual carriageway from Lincoln to Warwick which will have national significance for travel and the economy as well as easing congestion on the outskirts of Newark.
A public consultation is now being launched on the latest design and will run from Wednesday 26 October to Monday 12 December.
Save your space for our Nottingham Transport Summit
Join us for this event in collaboration with Nottingham City Council, as we highlight the exciting transport developments in the city.
Hear from Midlands Connect colleagues, councillors, and transport experts at NTU Events and Conferencing, as they discuss the latest and future transport developments in the city.
Nottingham is at the heart of the midlands and can benefit from many of the schemes championed by Midlands Connect. Proposals to improve the A614/A6097 Corridor could reduce congestion and support tourism in Nottinghamshire. Two major rail proposals would see Nottingham have better connections to Coventry, Leicester, and Lincoln.
This event will have a focus on transport as we head towards a net-zero future. Electric vehicles, hydrogen fuel, and public transportation are all hot on the agenda.
There will be speeches and panels, with opportunities for Q&As. Spaces are limited so be sure to sign up for this event as soon as possible.
Cash boost to explore improvements to Derby Road
We are awarding £50k of funding to Derbyshire County Council to help discover improvement plans for the A61 South of Chesterfield.
Midlands Connect will work with the council to research the best upgrades for the corridor, with an aim to produce a business case for funding from the government. The local MP and councillors support improvements to the road, one of the busiest in the area.
Potential options to be explored include:
- Better access for pedestrians by improving drop-kerbs and crossing points
- Enhanced public transport provision along the corridor
- More facilities for cyclists such as parking and cycle lanes
The road is one of the most congested in the county, a crucial part of the major road network in Derbyshire. Several "pinch points" have been identified at junctions and at the infamous Horns Bridge roundabout.
Shocking new figures on delays to the A5
Delays along the A5 are costing the economy more than £17k per day, as we announced on the eve of our A5 Corridor Conference in Hinckley.
We determined the economic impact of delays using an economic model which assesses the value of time of delays to a variety of different journey types on the A5 between the M6 and the M1.
Delays to HGV drivers’ journeys cost £3.4k and for commuters it’s £5.9k per day for the economy.
We are recommending that improvements between Hinckley and Tamworth and at Gibbet Hill should be considered for funding as part of the Government's third Road Investment Strategy (RIS3), meaning project delivery could begin as soon as 2025.
At the conference, Dr Luke Evans MP showed his support for improvements to the corridor, along with local councillors. The event was well attended and demonstrated the importance of the road in the area.
In the Engine Room with Tawhida Yaacoub
The impact of improving rail journey times in the Black Country
How can speeding up rail journeys improve the economy? What do shorter journey times mean for commuters, local businesses and tourists – and how do rail projects even go from an idea to implementation? We speak to Tawhida Yaacoub, Senior Rail Programme Manager at Midlands Connect, to answer these questions and discuss plans on enhancing the Birmingham – Black Country – Shrewsbury rail line.
If you have any other queries, please do not hesitate to contact us at mcadmin@midlandsconnect.uk or drop us a tweet @midsconnect
Further details of our work and news stories can be found at our website www.midlandsconnect.uk
