§ 69. Mr. Mappasked the Minister of Transport if, with a view to establishing criteria by which to assess future plans for the co-ordination of road and rail services, he will commission an economic study of the Manchester-Liverpool and London electrified rail project to work out the social costs and benefits, as well as the purely commercial costs and benefits, calculating the social costs on the same basis as motorways and road improvements and taking into account the savings on journey times and their money value.
§ Mr. MarplesWe are already developing in consultation with the Road Research Laboratory benefit calculations of road investment schemes and we have proposed to the British Transport Commission that we might jointly commission research studies on suitable rail investment projects to see how comparable techniques might be applied to them. We are discussing with the Commission the form such studies could take and the projects they might cover.