IMPROVEMENTS to Worcester’s rail links and the dualling of the Carrington Bridge were the main talking points when the Secretary of State for Transport visited the city.
Patrick McLoughlin was invited to the city by the Conservative’s parliamentary candidate for Worcester, Robin Walker on Monday (April 27) where they met at Shrub Hill station to discuss Worcester’s rail services to the capital.
The ‘Fast Track Worcester’ campaign was created in response to rail commuters from the Chester, York and the recently named ‘Norwich in Ninety’ services getting to London quicker than passengers from Worcester despite the similar distances to the capital.
Mr McLoughlin said: “This is one scheme we will be looking very closely at, I’ve been to Worcester many times and I think the improvement of rail links from Worcester to the capital is very important, partly because we’ll see a massive increase of people using the railway line which will ultimately benefit Worcester.”
Mr Walker then took Mr McLoughlin to Carrington Bridge to show him the work being done to dual the A4440 Southern Link from the Whittington to Ketch roundabouts, a project which needs a further £63million to dual the section of road across the bridge.
Asked by the Observer whether a future Conservative Government would commit to the completion of dualling the Carrington Bridge, Mr McLoughlin said: “There’s a lot of work going on and there’s a very strong case for the dualling of Carrington Bridge to be completed.
“We have got the money aside and we’ve started duelling the road so judge us on what we’ve done.
“These are the sort of infrastructure projects that are vital, and yes it’s expensive but as long as you’ve got the economy growing we will push for its completion,” he added.
