HC Deb 23 May 1977 vol 932 cc348-9W
Mr. Lee

asked the Secretary of State for Transport what consideration he has given to the letter of 13th December last from Mr. Gscheidle, the West German Minister of Transport, to the Ministers of Transport in all EEC countries, in which he sets out his country's views on the need to restrict road traffic quotas and make more use of other transport modes, especially under-used railways; if he agrees with the suggestion; and what action he proposes to take along the same lines in the United Kingdom.

Mr. William Rodgers

I have carefully studied the letter from Herr Gscheidle. The road congestion problems to which he refers are, of course, particularly relevant in West Germany which is a heavily trafficked transit country. It is likely, however, that this matter and the related railway problems will be discussed at the next Council of Ministers (Transport), which it is hoped will be held towards the end of June.

The British Government decided in 1974 to encourage the transfer of freight traffic from road to rail by setting up the new system of financial support for the railways and by providing grants under Section 8 of the Railways Act 1974 towards the cost of freight installations where these would benefit the local environment. Steps have also been taken to provide fairer competition between

1974–75 1975–76 1976–77
(a) Liverpool DC Area:
(i) Bus fuel grant … … … 0.9 0.9 1.1
(ii) Infrastructure grant … … … 7.2 6.1 8.2
(iii) Rail freight grant … … … — — 0.2
Total … … … 8.1 7.0 9.5
(b) Merseyside CC Area (excluding amounts at (a) and including grants paid for the County Area as a whole):
(i) Bus fuel grant … … … 0.3 0.4 0.4
(ii) New bus grant … … … 1.2 1.7 0.9
(iii) Infrastructure grant … … … 0.1 0.1 —
(iv) Principal roads etc. grants … … … 2.2 0.1 0.3
(v) Rail passenger services grant … … … 2.9 — —
(vi) Rail freight—grant … … … — 0.2 —
(vii) Transport supplementary grant … … … — 12.4 9.9
Total … … … 6.7 14.9 11.5

(i) From 1st April 1975 specific grants for principal roads and for passenger transport executive support of British Rail services were replaced by the transport supplementary grant.

(ii) The figures do not include public service obligation grants to the British Railways Board which cannot be attributed to individual local authority areas.