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Funding shortfalls stall rail plans. Dominic Perry reports
Page 20
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A LEADING South West operator is to lobby the Strategic Rail Authority in a bid to squeeze more funding out of it for its flagship rail freight project.
Chilcompton, Somerset-based Massey Wilcox is already running a limited rail freight operation at its new Avonmouth depot, but it is to tell the SRA that it cannot afford to expand the operation and reduce the number of truck journeys it makes without more government funding. At present the firm's rail freight terminal is forced to take loads on both trucks and trains thanks to a £500,000 SRA funding shortfall (CM 20 March) but business development director Mike Ham says that the firrn is keen to expand: "At the moment we're taking containers by truck from the port at Avonmouth down to our depot which doesn't seem to make an awful lot of sense.
"We'd much rather be taking the containers off the trains ourselves and then unloading them before sending the goods out according to our customers needs" However Ham stresses that without promises of SRA backing the company cannot afford to invest in the container lifting equipment and hard-standing the site needs to make this possible.
He adds: "Because the SRA's initial grant didn't meet our level of expectations we have had to curtail investment until funds become available."