asked Her Majesty's Government:

What incentives they plan to put in place to encourage the transfer of passengers and freight from road to rail.[HL7385]

The department does not have an explicit target for modal shift from road to heavy rail. However, rail is well placed to help deliver a range of wider departmental targets and objectives including those relating to tackling congestion on the road network, and reducing the impact of transport on the environment.

Next summer the Government will set out their plans for rail capacity and funding in their high level output specification and associated long-term rail strategy. These will build on the policies—such as the freight grant schemes—that in the past 10 years have seen the number of passengers using the railway grow by 35 per cent, freight increase 46 per cent and rail improve its overall modal share.