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Transport Secretary Philip Hammond had little new to offer the North East on a visit to Tyneside.

He came, he saw, he offered precious little that was new.

That was the verdict of most of the North East delegates who listened to Transport Secretary Philip Hammond address the .

And they have a point.

There was much anticipation that Mr Hammond might use his visit to announce good news for Hitachi's plans to build new trains in County Durham.

The company is planning to create up to 800 direct jobs - and thousands more indirectly - by building a new generation of Inter City trains at a site in Newton Aycliffe.

But it needs the Government to confirm it will be investing in the new trains for the East Coast and Great Western Lines.

That decision seems to be taking an age though.

After it was delayed beyond the Spending Review, Vince Cable said it would be made within a matter of weeks.

So did Mr Hammond come bearing good news?

Errr...no. Instead we were told again that the decision would come within weeks.

The Transport Secretary said it was proving more complex than first thought, and that he was also now considering a revised proposal to see if it offered value for money for the taxpayer.

, said the delay was frustrating when, in his view, the economic case was so strong.

But if there was no news on trains, perhaps Mr Hammond could deliver something on roads?

He tried. He announced that £2.8m would be spent improving the Silverlink roundabout on the A19 just north of the Tyne Tunnel.

But Labour say that was investment which had already been announced by the previous government before the election.

And it's a tiny fraction of the £200m that the region says is needed to reduce congestion north and south of the tunnel.

Millions will be spent improving the Silverlink roundabout in Tyneside, but it won't be enough to solve the congestion problem.

You'll remember those multi-million pound plans to improve the Silverlink and Testos roundabouts were put firmly at the back of the roads budget queue last month.

The Government says they won't happen for at least five years.

But the North East's great and good weren't going to let Philip Hammond get away with that today.

.

Martyn Pellew, the President of the , said the economic case for the improvements was unarguable as the investment would deliver a £1.3bn benefit to the region's economy.

He also pointed out that the North East gets a raw deal on roads generally.

The region only has 55 miles of motorway (the smallest for any region), and while the government spends an average of £363 per head on transport in the UK, it only spends £261 per head in the North East.

But Mr Hammond wouldn't be budged on the A19, the A1, or any road project.

He insisted the North East was getting its fair share of transport investment because of the .

And he reiterated the potential benefits of high speed rail for the North.

He said the line - which won't go further than Leeds or Manchester, remember - could have more impact on the North-South divide than anything proposed in the last 50 years.

A bold claim, but one that won't be tested for quite some time.

Although Mr Hammond confirmed he'll begin consulting on the route for high speed rail next year, the northern sections of the route could be decades away.

Delegates at today's meeting though will not be easily fobbed off. They say improvements are needed now to help boost business in the region.

So although Mr Hammond has now made his way back to London, campaigners for transport improvements in the region say they won't let him forget the North East.

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