A Rail Roundtable was convened by the UK Innovation Corridor and hosted by Arcadis at their City of London offices on 25 March.

Leading figures in the rail industry, together with partners and stakeholders from the East of England met recently at Arcadis’ G.B. H.Q. Chaired by the new UKIC Chair, Jackie Sadek, a series of short introductory presentations, by amongst others, Arcadis, Network Rail, Greater Anglia, England's Economic Heartland, Transport East, Cambridgeshire County Council, Stansted Airport and the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC), preceded a wider plenary debate on what a new Chancellor of the Exchequer and Secretary of State for Transport, [of whichever political party] needs to prioritise and invest in - to enable economic and housing growth, boost inward investment, increase connectivity and put passenger and freight train capacity at the centre of climate change mitigation.

'Hot on the heels’ of the success of powerful lobbying by this consortium, local MPs and joint campaigns by Transport East and EEH to get Government to commit to:

• improving the railway ‘bottlenecks' of Ely and Haughley Junctions,
• reconfiguration of congested Stratford Station,
• reducing journey times on the Stansted Express,
• a new station at Alconbury Weald on the ECML,
• full delivery of East-West Rail.