Rail grants
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• Hauliers who want to shift their loads on to rail can now apply for Government grants worth over £40m.
But the three-year, £43m allocation received only mild applause from rail lobby groups, which doubt that this amount of money is enough to bring about any significant shift in traffic.
From April the provisional allocation for the freight facilities grant and the new track access grant will be £13.3m for 1994/95; £14.4m for 1995/96; and £15.4m for 1996/97.
For 1993/94 the freight facilities grant which is intended to support private rail-freight facilities such as rail heads,stands at £3.3m.
The track access grant will apply to freight traffic which, the Department of Transport says, "genuinely" cannot support even low track charges. In some cases all of the track charges could be paid if justified by wider environmental benefits.
Under both schemes hauliers will be able to receive a maximum of .5p per truck mile saved on motorways and urban dual carriageways.