§ Mr. Muddasked the Secretary of State for Transport if he will publish the latest forecasts for road freight transport in (a) million tonnes and (b) thousand million tonne kilometres for the years 1985, 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2010.
§ Mrs. ChalkerUncertainty inevitably surrounds forecasts of road freight made many years into the future. For this reason the Department adopts a range of forecasts. The forecasts of goods carried by road which underlie the current National Road Traffic Forecasts, published in July 1980, are as follows:
Road Freight million tonnes billion tonnes-kms low high low high 1985 1,505 1,515 109.4 116.8 1990 1,510 1,530 115.7 126.1 1995 1,515 1,545 119.1 132.6 2000 1,520 1,560 122.5 137.6 Forecasts of road freight traffic (vehicle-kms) beyond 2000 are produced by extrapolation: no forecasts of goods carried by road are available after that date.
These forecasts are currently under review.