THE announcement of a major infrastructure package for road, rail and motorways has been welcomed. 

At today's Downing Street press conference, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the lockdown had been used to carry out a range of maintenance projects on the road and rail networks, and set out plans for nearly £2 billion of extra spending.

He said: "Today I can announce nearly £2 billion to upgrade our roads and railways, to put our transport infrastructure in the best possible shape and to get our economy growing once again.

"This package includes £1.7 billion for local roads – making journeys smoother and safer for drivers, hauliers, cyclists, motorcyclists, pedestrians and others.

"By filling millions of dangerous potholes, we will make our roads safer – and encourage more people to cycle, or even take part in the upcoming e-scooter trials.

"Helping more people play a part in relieving pressure on public transport.

"This investment will also help fix damage caused by winter flooding, repair roads and bridges, and fund numerous road improvement schemes.

"As more people become mobile again, we’ll be building a network of rapid charging stations for electric cars, including a big expansion of rapid-charging facilities at motorway service stations, helping the country to lock-in the dramatic air-quality improvements we’ve experienced during the coronavirus lockdown."

He said that in the North, £96 million of rail infrastructure improvements were delivered during April.

Barry White, Chief Executive at Transport for the North, said: “Transport for the North welcomes this announcement by the Secretary of State today, given the clear need for a decisive response to the current crisis and the need to support people in moving about their essential business safely.

“The immediate task must be to equip our public transport infrastructure with everything it needs to facilitate the safe movement of people and have clear communications with passengers.

"This includes the key message to avoid using public transport wherever possible so that the limited space is available for those essential users.  We are working closely with our partner authorities  to feed local intelligence into the system and encourage people to use alternatives such as walking and cycling where possible.

“This investment announced for road and rail needs to support the country’s economic recovery and help level-up infrastructure so that our people and businesses can get around as they need to.

“Over 90 per cent of our journeys are by road, whether this involves driving, walking, cycling or catching a bus. We welcome the investment in roads, especially to improve active travel provision during the pandemic. Inclusive and sustainable travel is one of our key objectives and this offers an opportunity for our partners to deliver at scale and pace.

“It is right that fast-tracked construction works are to be put in place to ensure networks get vital repairs while fewer passengers are using the transport system, and we are already working closely with Government on supporting the delivery of shovel-ready projects to help economic recovery.

"As Government and others have said it is now important that we lock-in the environmental benefits seen during lockdown, and measures to boost England’s charging infrastructure for electric vehicles over next decade will certainly help.

“As we move forward our Members have made clear that crystal clear communication and extreme caution will be the watchwords throughout this critical time as we head towards a new normal.

"The package of measures announced today and others made recently should be seen as just the start of what needs to be a fully-funded move towards levelling-up our national transport network to provide the best possible chance of economic recovery while meeting ambitions around decarbonisation.”