Hauliers scorn rail plan
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by Grant Prior
• Hauliers in Kent are dismissing the local council's plans to lure 400,000 truck movements a year off the roads and on to rail.
A consultation exercise began earlier this month in the county in a bid to increase the role of the railways in the cross-Channel freight market. Councillors have drawn up the "Freight Code" which details ways of encouraging traffic off the roads.
These include more integration of road and rail traffic via freight interchanges where trucks can be loaded on to trains to be piggybacked across the county
Local hauliers are sceptical about the scheme. John Coulling, director of Maidstone-based Coulling Bros, says: "With rail you are left in the hands of BR, which doesn't exactly fill anyone with confidence." And a spokesman for freight forwarder LEP International in Dover says: "That sounds like an awful lot of traffic to move off the roads. I don't think there is enough room on the BR network and the whole idea hardly seems feasible." But a spokesman for Kent CC says: "The freight code brings together strands of our transport policy and is the first stage in a consultation exercise with local firms."
The council is also looking to make life easier for truck drivers by improving signposting in Kent and improving access to town centres.
A final draft of the freight code will go before the transport committee in the Autumn.