Your readers might be interested to know what we are looking at to reduce congestion problems on the A34.

The county council has successfully bid for £62m of Government funds to implement a package of measures to help combat existing congestion problems on the A34 and accommodate future growth.

This, coupled with funding from Network Rail and local contributions, forms a large part of the county's £88m Access to Oxford project.

This represents the largest amount of money for transport handed to Oxfordshire County Council and we are currently working closely with the Highways Agency and Network Rail, looking at ways in which the money can best be spent to ensure we make the most of this opportunity.

Solving the A34 problem will be looked at in two parts.

We will be looking at how we can help the A34 operate safely at its maximum capacity through innovative measures such as variable speed limits to help control traffic flow, variable message signs to improve driver information and improving safety barriers and incident detection.

These measures have proved successful on other congested routes such as the M42 and we are working with the Highways Agency to see how we could best use such a package on the A34.

Secondly, we need to help contain vehicle movements on the A34, not by suppressing growth but by making other modes more attractive, for example improving rail services between Bicester and Oxford and introducing bus priority measures on the approaches to the city to improve journey time reliability.

Network Rail is also planning to upgrade the rail line between Southampton and the Midlands so that more freight can be carried by rail, which will help take lorries off the A34.

The majority of the money for the Access to Oxford project will be available between 2011 and 2016, but planning work is already getting under way so that we are ready to meet the challenge.

David Robertson, Deputy Leader, Cabinet Member for Transport Strategy, Oxfordshire County Council