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County backing for A64 upgrade
11:49am Saturday 29th March 2008
Comments (2)NORTH Yorkshire County Council says it will back the upgrading of the A64 "at every opportunity".
It follows news this week, reported in the Gazette & Herald, that the Government has issued a response to a petition asking for the busy road to be be upgraded to dual carriageway for its full length between York and Scarborough.
The response on the Downing Street website said that later this year the Yorkshire and Humber Transport Board, along with other regions, will be given the opportunity to review prioritisation decisions made back in January 2006.
At that time the A64 dual carriageway was not afforded a high priority by the board. The Government added that it will be for North Yorkshire County Council and other scheme promoters to put forward a fresh case for the scheme to the board later this year.
"The county council fully supports the provision of a dual carriageway for the A64 between York and Scarborough given the clear economic and safety benefits for Scarborough and the surrounding area," said Barrie Mason, head of network strategy at County Hall.
"However, this stretch of the A64 is trunk road and therefore any improvement can only be delivered by the Highways Agency, which is not in a position to fund proposals for projects that have previously been ranked very low by the Yorkshire and Humber Transport Board.
But the county council will continue to press at every opportunity for the upgrading of the A64 to dual carriageway.
''The County Council continues to work closely with the Highways Agency and is aware that a number of locations along the A64 are being investigated with a view to introducing improvements to achieve further safety benefits.''
Your Say YourGazette & Herald
Ben, Ryedale says...
1:36pm Tue 1 Apr 08
There is already a viable railway line covering the whole route, with brand new trains and speeds higher than 70mph in some places (especially between Malton and Scarborough). There is quite a lot of capacity left on this line as there is just 1 train per hour in each direction.
I have already tried to write to this newspaper about this issue.
Why should huge amounts of money be forked out to dual some 25 miles of road when road transport on this scale is obviously not sustainable? Dualling the whole road will invite haulage companies to put even more traffic onto it. Eventually it could become just as congested as todayÂ’s A64 is.
It would be more environmentally friendly to use fixed formation Freight Multiple Units (FMUs) to take lorry traffic carrying supermarket goods onto the railway, and to find the political will to cut rail fares so that more people (especially families) choose to go by train and relieve the A64.
The reasons why people are not using the train are higher rail fares than in continental Europe, insufficient car parking , and the absence of stations in key locations such as Haxby, Strensall, the District Hospital area of York, and Copmanthorpe.
Some of the money should be spent on build ing parkway stations on the outskirts of York, Scarborough and Malton, and providing freight depots connected to the line to allow lorries to carry the cargo the remaining distances to the destinations unserved by rail.
With our current Department for Transport (DfT), however, it appears more difficult to carry this comparatively measly engineering work out than a much larger-scale task of dualling about 25 miles of trunk road.
But I do support the proposals for bypasses to stop York or Scarbororough-bound traffic from driving through Rillington and Sherburn where the road is narrow and traffic is forced to stop at red lights. There are many very dangerous crossroads or turnings (e.g Barton Hill, scene of a collision recently) that need replacing with slip roads.
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Ben, Ryedale says...
1:36pm Tue 1 Apr 08
There is already a viable railway line covering the whole route, with brand new trains and speeds higher than 70mph in some places (especially between Malton and Scarborough). There is quite a lot of capacity left on this line as there is just 1 train per hour in each direction.
I have already tried to write to this newspaper about this issue.
Why should huge amounts of money be forked out to dual some 25 miles of road when road transport on this scale is obviously not sustainable? Dualling the whole road will invite haulage companies to put even more traffic onto it. Eventually it could become just as congested as today’s A64 is.
It would be more environmentally friendly to use fixed formation Freight Multiple Units (FMUs) to take lorry traffic carrying supermarket goods onto the railway, and to find the political will to cut rail fares so that more people (especially families) choose to go by train and relieve the A64.
The reasons why people are not using the train are higher rail fares than in continental Europe, insufficient car parking , and the absence of stations in key locations such as Haxby, Strensall, the District Hospital area of York, and Copmanthorpe.
Some of the money should be spent on build ing parkway stations on the outskirts of York, Scarborough and Malton, and providing freight depots connected to the line to allow lorries to carry the cargo the remaining distances to the destinations unserved by rail.
With our current Department for Transport (DfT), however, it appears more difficult to carry this comparatively measly engineering work out than a much larger-scale task of dualling about 25 miles of trunk road.
But I do support the proposals for bypasses to stop York or Scarbororough-bound traffic from driving through Rillington and Sherburn where the road is narrow and traffic is forced to stop at red lights. There are many very dangerous crossroads or turnings (e.g Barton Hill, scene of a collision recently) that need replacing with slip roads.