HC Deb 13 July 1999 vol 335 c158W
Mr. Caton

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what plans he has to encourage the Royal Mail to increase the proportion of post transported by rail. [90752]

Mr. Ian McCartney

[holding answer 12 July 1999]: Decisions relating to the transport arrangement for mail are the operational responsibility of Royal Mail management whose business policy is continually to review its methods of transportation in order to improve service to customers.

I understand that Royal Mail are currently looking at a number of initiatives for transferring letter mails from road to rail and the first of these will be introduced between London and Glasgow at the end of August. In addition, a dedicated rail terminal at Bristol is scheduled for completion by Easter 2000, which will transfer an annual 250,000 kilometres of road journeys to rail.

Mr. Caton

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what percentage by volume of Royal Mail parcels and letters have been transferred from rail to road transport in the past five years. [90852]

Mr. Ian McCartney

I understand from the Post Office that there has been no net movement of Royal Mail letter traffic from road transport to rail in the past five years. Over the period, conveyance of letter traffic by transport mode has remained constant at 70 per cent. road, 23 per cent. rail and 7 per cent.

Parcelforce have transferred 0.5 per cent. of national traffic from road to rail via the intermodal service introduced in June 1998.