Railways Act 1993: S139 Grants

Lord Berkeley

asked Her Majesty's Government:What information they require in support of applications for grants under Section 139 of the Railways Act 1993 in respect of:

(a) forecasts of traffic to be transferred from road to rail;

(b) evidence of commitment from potential operators;

(c) classes or descriptions of goods to be carried.

The information required is as follows:

(a) evidence that the traffic concerned will materialise and is likely to be retained on rail for an agreed period of time;

(b) evidence from the prospective rail operator that agreement has been reached with the applicant for the traffic to be carried for the life of the project;

(c) detailed information on the nature of the particular product to be carried, any special features associated with its handling and the annual quantities to be carried by rail for the duration of the traffic commitment.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What is the basis for the calculation of environmental benefit for freight transferred from road to rail in assessing applications for support under Section 139 of the Railways Act 1993 for lorries on:

(a) motorways;

(b) single carriageway roads;

(c) urban roads.

The environmental benefit of grant applications is calculated by applying the following rates per lorry mile of road journeys avoided over qualifying routes:

	£
motorways, rural dual carriageways and urban grade separated dual carriageways	0.05
rural single carriageways	1.00
urban single carriageways and urban non-grade separated dual carriageways	1.50

Volume 571: debated on Tuesday 2 April 1996