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MP suggests A14 road charge
Page 20
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A Liberal Democrat MP calls for trucks to be charged to use the Al 4 and for the money raised to be invested in rail to encourage modal
shift. Chris Tindall reports.
A CAMBRIDGE MP is backing proposals to charge trucks using the A14 in order to move freight off the road and onto rail.
Liberal Democrat MP David Howarth says the money raised. thought to be 1600m after costs, would fund improvements to the rail network.
He claims the charge would also reduce the -vast number of accidents" caused by LGVs on the road network.
He adds: "A per-mile tax on lorries would seriously reduce the congestion on the dreaded A14. We need to persuade companies to send freight by rail, not on our busy roads.
"The tax would also mean investment in better rail services for both passengers and freight. The government failed to back a bid for European funding for the Felixstowe-Nuneaton rail scheme. This scheme is essential to provide a real alternative to the A 1 4 for freight."
The MP says a truck tax would also benefit locally grown produce as buying locally would be cheaper than transporting goods from across the country.
Geoff Dossetter,extemal affairs director at the Freight Transport Association, says the Lib Dems' line is "naive" and -frankly daft".
-Of course we should be investing in rail freight, but not at the cost of penalising already efficient road freight. This idea is clearly not going to happen.
"The A14 is a very important trunk route from Felixstowe into the Midlands and part of the motorway network. If anything, we should be spending money improving the A14 to motorway standard," Dossetter says.