§ Mr. Nicholas Wintertonasked the Secretary of State for Transport what were the main categories of goods carried by rail in the last two years; what proportion of total rail freight each of these categories represented; what were the main categories of goods carried by road during the same period; and what proportion of total road freight each of these categories represented.
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§ Mr. EyreInformation for the main categories of goods carried by rail and road in 1980 and 1981, the last two years for which data are available, is given on the following table.
Freight moved (tonne-kilometres) by commodity group* Rail 1981 Per cent. 1980 Per cent. Coal and coke* 37.3 36.6 Freightliners Ltd. 13.6 14.4 Iron and steel 13.3 9.7 Oil and petroleum 12.8 12.8 Earths and stones 10.3 11.8 Chemicals and allied products 4.5 5.2 Building materials 3.2 3.9 Agriculture, food and drink 2.1 2.9 Motor vehicles and components 1.5 1.4 Miscellaneous products 1.4 1.3 100 100
Road 1981 Per cent. 1980 Per cent. Food, drink and tobacco 26.3 24.7 Crude minerals 11.1 11.4 Building materials 7.9 8.1 Chemicals and fertilisers 7.8 7.6 Iron and Steel product 6.1 6.4 Machinery and transport equipment 5.8 6.5 Petrol and petroleum product 4.1 4.8 Coal and coke 3.4 2.9 Wood, timber and cork 2.1 2.2 Crude materials 2.0 2.0 Other metal products 1.4 1.3 Ores 1.2 1.0 Miscellaneous manufacture and miscellaneous transactions 20.8 21.1 100 100 * The commodity groups are not identical for road and rail. † Excluding vehicles under 3.5 tonnes gross vehicle weight. ‡ No commodity analysis of Freightlines traffic is available.