HC Deb 13 January 1997 vol 288 cc8-9
7. Mr. Spring

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport to what extent the volume of rail freight has changed in the past five years. [8779]

Mr. Watts

In 1991, rail carried 134.8 million tonnes of freight, falling to 97.3 million tonnes in 1994, but rising again to 103.2 million tonnes in 1995. The key to rail freight's revival is privatisation. New private sector freight companies are attracting new traffic to the railway.

Mr. Spring

In thanking my hon. Friend for his answer, may I particularly welcome the announcement last autumn on rate increases and the rail freight grant? Does he share my view that that will encourage the movement of freight on to rail, which is good not only for motorists but for the environment?

Mr. Watts

I certainly hope that the increase in the mileage rate for motorway traffic will attract more of that road freight on to rail. Since 1979, more than 150 rail freight grants have been awarded, securing to rail the equivalent of about 3 million lorry journeys a year. About one in eight of all types of rail freight traffic have benefited at some time from grant.

Mr. Sutcliffe

If the Government are serious about rail freight, why has the freight facility grant not been fully spent? Of the £70 million available, why was only £32 million spent between 1985 and 1996? Is it not the truth that the Government have no intention of trying to increase rail freight?

Mr. Watts

On the contrary, the reason why I have adjusted the mileage rates, and why we have under way a review of ways in which administrative procedures for the grants could be further streamlined, is that we wish the grants to be taken up fully. Evidence shows how effective they are in encouraging new traffic to move off roads on to rail, or to be retained on rail, whereas it might otherwise have been lost to road.

Mr. Bernard Jenkin

Is it not time for everyone to acknowledge that the best prospects for rail freight are in the private sector and that the whole railway is being transformed by privatisation, which is liberating the management and injecting the capital, as state ownership could never possibly have done? Should we not remind ourselves that we were told that this was all going to be chaotic and disastrous, but the reverse is happening?

Mr. Watts

My hon. Friend is entirely right. English, Welsh and Scottish Railway and Freightliners have impressive investment plans and both have already demonstrated their ability to attract new business for the freight railway. It is in the new private environment that rail freight has its brightest future.

Mr. Chidgey

Is the Minister aware that, in the mad scramble to sell off the passenger franchise for the west coast main line, rail paths that are essential for the efficient operation of freight are being sacrificed? Will he advise the Rail Regulator that, in the negotiations to let passenger franchise, freight capacity must not be reduced?

Mr. Watts

I do not accept the hon. Gentleman's initial supposition. The Rail Regulator needs no instructions either from me or from my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Transport to discharge his responsibilities to ensure that access to the railway is available both for passenger and for freight traffic.