HC Deb 07 February 2000 vol 344 cc11-2W
Mr. Dobbin

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what change there has been in(a) rail freight usage and (b) heavy goods vehicle movements since 1 May 1997. [107863]

Mr. Hill

The changes in tonnes moved (billion tonne-kilometres) in Great Britain are as given in the table:

Rail HGVs1
Q2 1997 4.1 39.0
Q3 19992 4.5 37.2
Percentage change +9 -5
1 GB registered vehicles over 3.5 tonnes gross vehicle weight
2 Provisional figures

Monthly figures are not available. The question has therefore been answered by taking the second quarter of 1997 as a base for the comparison.