§ Mr. John Osbornasked the Secretary of State for Transport when he will next attend a meeting of the European Committee of Transport Ministers; and if he is now able to make a statement on the special study on the true comparative costs of road transport against railways within their member countries indicating any conclusions he has reached about the position in the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. David Howell[pursuant to his reply, 10 March 1982, c. 451]: My hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State will be attending on my behalf the next Council of Ministers of the European Conference of Minister of Transport to be held in Dublin in May. The report to Much I think my hon. Friend refers was one on "The Allocation of Infrastructure Costs" considered at a previous meeting of the Council in Helsinki in May 1981. This dealt mainly with assessment of infrastructure costs imposed by road traffic, and suggested areas on which more work needed to be done. It treated rail and inland waterway traffic much more summarily.
Methods of assessing costs for these two modes are still the subject of study. Results so far available from the ECMT studies do not enable conclusions to be drawn about the comparative costs of road and rail transport in the United Kingdom.