1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162 
Haulier lobbies MPs over SRA grant cuts
Page 8
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• by Miles Brignall
A West Country haulier left in the lurch when the Strategic Rail Authority froze all rail freight grants will be writing to every MP in an attempt to get the money it was promised.
Chilcompton-based Massey Wilcox Transport was planning a 11.5m investment in a rail-freight terminal at Avonmouth near Bristol. and had been told it would receive a grant of around 75% of the money (Dm) by the SRA. However, on the day that final approval should have been given (17 January), the SRA told Massey Wilcox that all Freight Facilities Grants were being frozen, and no money would be forthcoming (CM23-29 Jan).
Business development manager Mike Ham says that, without the anticipated grant, the project is simply not viable.
"The environmental benefit of the project would be immense. We want to carry paper products from the East Coast into the South-West. By opening up the rail link, we would be able to remove 12,000 44-tonne truck journeys off the UK's roads. The whole point of the grant system is to provide capital assistance to encourage this transfer—without the grant, the whole project is dead in the water," he says.
Ham is particularly annoyed because the company has already spent thousands of pounds on upgrading the rail system and order equipment in readiness for the award.
"We are seeing our MP David Heathcote Amory on Saturday, and we aim to contact every other MP in the country in a bid to get the SRA to see sense. They have come back to us with an offer of sorts—but it's £600,000 short of the original offer]. How can we be expected to pick up the bill?" he asks.
However, a spokesman for the SRA says no more money is likely to be forthcoming before April 2004 at the earliest.
We are not happy about the
position either, but we have a 1312m shortfall in our funding from government, and we can't pass on money we haven't got," he says.
• One company lucky enough to get a grant from the SRA before the freeze is Associated British Ports. It is spending 11.5m on doubling the capacity of its railfreight terminal at Hams Hall in the Midlands.
Construction work has already started on two new sidings which are expected to be up and running at the start of April. One will handle a daily freight service to Glasgow, the other is being considered for a service to the port of Southampton.
The new siding will double the number of trains the Hams Hall site can handle.