Disappointment at Government decision to consider longer HGVs

Freight on Rail is disappointed with the Government decision to consider longer HGV trailers as any relative shift in favour of road transport runs contrary to development of the low carbon economy. While road and rail complement each other, larger trunk movements of freight can be more sustainably carried by rail than in larger lorries.

Existing sized lorries are still 40 times heavier, 4 times longer, three times more likely to be involved in road fatalities, twice as noisy, and thousands of times more damaging to the road surface than cars and produce at least three times more carbon dioixide, per tonne carried, than rail.

Ref Delivering a Sustainable Transport System The Logistics Perspective

Published by DfT 16 December 2008

 

Philippa Edmunds
Freight on Rail Campaigner
020 8241 9982 mobile 07981 881410