Freight on Rail Response to DTLR Planning Green Paper: National Infrastructure Projects
March 19th 2002
Freight on Rail welcomes the opportunity to comment on Planning: National Infrastructure Projects
Definition of Freight on Rail
Freight on Rail is a partnership between transport trades unions, freight operating companies, Railtrack, the Rail Freight Group and Transport 2000. It works to promote the economic, social and environmental benefits of rail freight both nationally and locally. It advocates policy changes that support the shift to rail and provides information and help on freight related issues. In particular, it aims to help local authorities through all stages of the process such as planning a rail-freight strategy, accessing grants and dealing with technical matters
The members are as follows:-
Rail Freight Group, EWS, Freightliner, RMT, ASLEF, TSSA and Transport 2000
Rail freight traffic has grown 40% in the last five years, and the Government’s Ten-Year Transport Plan published in July 2001 expects in a further 80% growth in this period. Without this growth the government will not reach its congestion or pollution reduction targets.
In order to achieve the Governments target growth for rail freight it will be essential to develop more terminals and distribution points to cope with this growth.
Freight on Rail believes that there should be a fundamental review of the Transport and Works Act, 1992. The national interest needs to be taken into account in evaluation of projects of this nature. Statements of national policy should be authoritative and provide the framework in which decisions of national importance are to be made. We do not, however, believe that this is the right vehicle for deciding exact location of a project. We believe that statements of national and regional interest should identify the need for a project, which should then be combined with the existing planning inquiry process. The L.I.F.E. project, which has already run for six years and is still awaiting judgement, is an example where establishment of the national policy need for a rail freight terminal in West London could shorten the process. A shorter public inquiry could determine exact location and size and cut the risks and cost of the procedure, which has cost almost £10 million to date.
There is also considerable concern that the parliamentary process is expensive with long time-scales. Added to that, the result of the parliamentary process is unpredictable, which is likely to act as a disincentive to development.
There must be clear guidance as to which projects should be handled by parliamentary procedures from the outset. Freight on Rail believes that it should be limited to large-scale projects and that the existing list identified in the consultation could be shortened.
We need a
system that fully engages with the people so that planning is
be a positive tool rather than a negative brake on development.