)ad to rail ander ilayed
Page 13
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IENT plans to .e pace on freight from ,e to the railways delayed by a -tage of rolling ! the general limate.
Mulley, Minister )rt, admitted his nent to a critical if the Par!labour Party at the 'ommons.
nister was also -iticized for the nt's lack of ,n nationalizing ors of the road iustry.
ey insisted that he ,ommitted to the I down in the Party's election lut urged MPs to that it was a prow a full five-year re assured that the as now preparing aper, for publicaspring, outlining to boost public and improve the nsport system. z:xt financial year, the Government iaying out more in o British Rail than revenue support and investment capital committed for the current year. But the economic crisis would affect spending. The road programme would bear the brunt of the cuts, but there would have to be economies on the railways as well.
Road spending cut
Spending on roads would be cut by 40 per cent and plans for three-lane dualcarriageways would now be reduced to two lanes.
On the switch of traffic from road to rail, Mr Mulley said Mr Richard Marsh, British Rail chairman, was satisfied with the rate of progress.
There had been a good response from a number of large companies, but it would take a long time to dent the amount of heavy freight traffic on the roads.
Although a transfer was very desirable, he said, -the railways have just not got sufficient rolling stock to take a great deal of traffic from the roads".
"With the nation's economy in its present state it is just not pOssible to speed up action in this direction," he said.