Freight: Modes of Transport (Hansard, 26 November 1996)

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Transport (Viscount Goschen)
My Lords, the privatisation of the railways has created an environment in which the transfer of freight from road to rail can take place. In addition, for many years we have made freight facilities grants available to encourage the transfer of freight from road to rail and inland waterways.

§ Baroness Turner of Camden
My Lords, I thank the Minister for that reply. Is he aware that the overloading of our road system is due to heavy commercial vehicles rather than the much maligned motorist, of which I happen to be one? The sooner there can be a transfer to other means of carriage, the better it will be.

§ Viscount Goschen
My Lords, the Government support the movement of freight from the road to the rail network. We believe that the new freight companies, the new management that has taken over the companies and the new investment that we have seen will result in more incentives to do exactly that.

§ Lord Taylor of Gryfe
My Lords, is it the case that the freight services of British Rail were sold to an American company now registered in the UK with limited experience in this country and in this field? The profits of Railtrack publicised last week were substantial. Would not a reduction in the access charge for freight using Railtrack be a positive measure in helping to develop freight transport and the environment?

§ Viscount Goschen
My Lords, we certainly want to see as many companies as possible competing to purchase the rail businesses. The fact that there has been considerable international interest in the railways in the UK is a good thing because we want to attract investment into this country. The track access charges are regulated by the independent rail regulator. In addition, we have a track access grant scheme where there is a potential transfer from road to rail.

§ Lord Clinton-Davis
My Lords, does the Minister recall assertions that were made by Mr. Malcolm Rifkind when he was Secretary of State for Transport 117 and successive Secretaries of State since then, that they were determined to secure a substantial shift of freight from road to rail? What measurable progress has been made since those days? Is the Minister aware—he was not yesterday—that operators dealing with ports, wagon manufacturers and freight operators (25 of them) have expressed great concern that the main emphasis being given by Railtrack is to passenger services with hardly any emphasis being given to freight?

§ Viscount Goschen
My Lords, the noble Lord asks about the changes that have occurred between road and rail in terms of transporting freight. It is clear that for a long time there has been a tendency for freight to be moved increasingly by road. We are now seeing new management companies involved in the railfreight businesses. They have clear financial incentives to move freight onto the railways, to attract more customers and to put on new services. For example, EWS announced an expansion of its enterprise wagonload services; new services to link the ports of Immingham, Goole and Avonmouth with the enterprise network will start in January; coal trains have operations in Castle Cement's Padeswood Works in North Wales for the first time in 30 years. I could continue. We are seeing new services and new customers being attracted to the railways. That has to be a good thing.

§ Lord Clinton-Davis
My Lords, I asked the Minister to give an adequate explanation of the measurable improvement that has been achieved. What percentage of freight transport is covered by rail today as compared with, say, three years ago?

§ Viscount Goschen
My Lords, the noble Lord may be aware, as he contributed to the rail privatisation debate, that this is a young process; it is not yet fully complete. But already we have seen improvements in services and new services being introduced.

Noble Lords
Answer!

§ Viscount Goschen
My Lords, I have answered. Not only have I answered the question, but I have given concrete examples. The Opposition cannot stand the fact that new services have been introduced since the privatisation.

§ Lady Kinloss
My Lords, does the Minister see any reason why waterways should not be used, and our canals?

§ Viscount Goschen
No, my Lords. They should be used but those are commercial decisions for operators. Often the appropriate inland waterways infrastructure does not exist. Where the waterways infrastructure exists and a capital grant might make a difference in transferring freight from the road to the waterways, there is a freight facilities grant available from the Department of Transport. I witnessed one such scheme 118 whereby a large chemical company was using the Manchester Ship Canal, saving thousands of road journeys a year.

§ Baroness Young
My Lords, does my noble friend agree that those of us who regularly travel by rail are already beginning to see improvements on the privatised rail network?

Noble Lords
Oh!

§ Baroness Young
My Lords, noble Lords opposite may laugh, but I wonder how often they use the train. We have every reason to expect that after a reasonable length of time—privatisation is a recent development—the privatised rail network will attract freight. What has happened in the past is that the railways have been unable to meet the needs of private enterprise to transfer its goods.

§ Viscount Goschen
My Lords, my noble friend has made exactly the right point. The Opposition find it amusing that more people are enjoying the railway service, more investment is going into the railways, new services are being provided and new customers are being found. The Opposition are quietly forgetting their opposition to rail privatisation as they did before with the airlines, as they did before with airports and as they did before with British telecommunications. The Opposition's arguments are ones of dogma; ours are ones of practicality.

§ Lord Richard
My Lords, oh dear! Can the noble Viscount answer the specific questions put to him by my noble friend? What percentage of freight is now carried by rail compared with three years ago? Either he has the figures or he does not have the figures. If he has the figures, he ought to tell us; if he does not have the figures, he ought to get them.

§ Viscount Goschen
My Lords, I shall be delighted to write to the noble Lord with every figure I can find to illustrate what I described to the House as the historic decline we have seen in the railways, including under-investment in the railways when the noble Lord's party regrettably was in power. What we see now is the new investment and the new services. Noble Lords opposite do not like it. One recalls remarks about British Airways being a pantomime horse of privatisation. Similar things were said about railways. Now we are seeing success.

§ Lord Dixon-Smith
My Lords, does my noble friend agree that there are so many potential sources from which freight emanates and so many potential destinations to which it has to go that the idea of massive transfers of large volumes of freight to systems such as rail is a little impractical without some involvement with road transport along the way?

§ Viscount Goschen
My Lords, my noble friend recognises the success of the road transport industry in the UK. The fact that the typical haulage distance in this 119 country is only some 60 miles puts a strong physical constraint on the total practicalities of what freight can be moved by rail and what freight can be moved by road. Of course there are issues concerning double handling. But what we want to do is to put in place a climate where rail is as attractive as possible to movers of freight.

§ Baroness Farrington of Ribbleton
My Lords, can the Minister explain how the Government can fulfil their stated commitment to improving the environment, particularly with regard to the health of children, and how they can assist local authorities to which they will give the responsibility for controlling road traffic in their areas when the air pollution level is dangerous for children living in that locality, when the Minister cannot even tell us what percentage change there has been from road to rail over the past three years?

§ Viscount Goschen
My Lords, I totally reject the supposition behind the noble Baroness's question. I have made it clear that there has been an historic decline in the use of the railways for transporting freight. I have also made it clear that new services have been put on. We find that encouraging and we do not seek to draw attention away from that fact.

§ Lord Taylor of Gryfe
My Lords, is the Minister aware that the only part of rail freight which is now in the hands of British Rail is the connecting line with the Channel Tunnel? If he is making future comparisons about performance, perhaps he will keep in mind that that stretch of railway line which is still in British Rail hands has been seriously affected by the difficulties in the tunnel.

§ Viscount Goschen
My Lords, the noble Lord's point is very true indeed.