id-to-rail switch torpedoed
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Ibby gets a drubbing as Chunnel goes and MuIley warns further transfers from road
eporter
ransport will play the leading loving Britain's iring the years I there is a chance be unhindered by ck, pro-rail lobby 3 s held sway The change in confirmed by two
events: the g of the railChannel Tunnel I a warning by the r Transport that it sible to transfer re freight from LH (full report, p.
political cloud on :ransport horizon is the news that nment is making further cuts in the already savagely pruned road-building programme. Most interested parties are stressing the need to re-assess the south-eastern road network — with higher priorities for ports access — following the scrapping of the Chunnel.
Subjecting the politically sensitive issue of switching goods from road to rail to the cold light of economic necessity, Mr Mulley warned Labour MPs that "it is just not possible to speed up action in this direction". He said that British Rail chairman Richard Marsh was satisfied with progress. The problem was that there was insufficient roll
ing stock available to enable BR to carry more freig ht and no capital was available for it to buy more.
The news — which represents a significant rethink of the Government's position — was greeted warmly by spokesmen from both sides of the road transport industry. Mr Larry Smith, of the Transport and General Workers' Union, said that "a lot of eyewash" had been spoken about the possibilities for switching goods traffic to the railways. A spokesman for the Freight Transport Association said that Mr Mulley's statement confirmed what the Association had been saying, and a similar line was taken by the Road Haulage Association.
Both RHA and FTA welcomed news of the end of the Channel Tunnel project. The RHA spokesman said that the Association had objected to the tunnel on the grounds that it was an inflexible transport mode; a dispersal of traffic to various ports was much more preferable. The FTA is calling for an "urgent reappraisal" of roll-on roll-off access roads to ports like Dover, Folkestone, Newhaven and so on in the light of the news. "Otherwise," said an FTA spokesman, "life in some Kent and Sussex village will become quite intolerable."