Welwyn Hatfield MP Grant Shapps announces £2 billion funding for roads and cycleways
Welwyn Hatfield MP and Transport Minister Grant Shapps has announced funding to improve cycleways and roads. Picture: BBC - Credit: Archant
Welwyn Hatfield MP and Transport Minister Grant Shapps has today lead the daily Downing Street press briefing, announcing that £2 billion of funding to upgrade roads and railways.
This package includes £1.7 billion for local roads – “helping more people play our part in relieving public pressure on public transport”, according to Mr Shapps.
Mr Shapps began by highlighting documents released earlier this week with guidance for local authorities, transport providers and passengers who cannot avoid public transport to enable their safety while travelling.
He went on to announce that while the country was in lockdown, the time had been used to “fix and upgrade the nations road and rail infrastructure”.
He said: “As we begin making tentative steps to restarting our economy and people in some sectors who can’t work from home are beginning to return to work places it is clear that transport has a critical role to play.
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“We will begin to travel once again they should notice that whilst the country has been in downtime we have been busy fixing the nations infrastructure so we can recover faster when the time comes.”
He announced that 419 Network Rail projects were completed over Easter, with a further 1,000 upgrades carried out during the May Bank Holiday.
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Throughout April, Highways England completed £200 million worth of projects, while Network Rail delivered £200 million worth.
The MP said; “Amid all the sad news and the tragedy of loved ones we’ve lost, we’ve somehow managed to do things in weeks that would normally take years.
“Building new hospitals, moving public services online, making instant reforms and fastracked new laws.
“If building a new hospital takes just two weeks why should building a new road still take as long as 20 years?
“Why are most rail passengers still travelling on cardboard tickets?”
