Tory peers press for a 40-tonne tanker limit
Page 9
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
N by Dominic Perry
Tory peers have tabled an amendment to the Transport Bill currently passing through the House of Lords to allow cement tankers to run at 48 tonnes.
However, Earl Atlee and the two other Lords who proposed the amendment—Lord Brabazon of Tara and Lord Dixon-Smith—see no chance of it actually becoming law.
Instead the amendment is an attempt to secure an apology from the government over what Attlee describes as "misleading" written answers given by Transport Minister Keith Hill back in July over the Shadow Strategic Rail Authority's E6m freight innovation award.
Hill gave two separate written answers to questions posed by Shadow Transport Minister Bernard Jenkln regarding the weight of the Blue Circle/Metalalr Feldbinder piggyback trailers that won the SSRA's competition, In Hill's first answer on 12 July, he stated that the total weight of tanker, trailer and payload would be "a maximum of 40 tonnes, to which the traction unit would then be added". The tractor required to pull this weight would need to be at least eight tonnes, meaning a gross train weight of around 48 tonnes—four tonnes over the legal limit.
This prompted a second question from Jenkin, answered by Hill on 24 July. He said that the total on-road weight would not exceed 44 tonnes with the payload limited to 25.8 tonnes. But Atlee says that because there was no admission that the first answer was wrong, there is still a lack of clarity on this issue.
In fact, Blue Circle Cement reports that the payload carried by the piggyback wagons will be, and always has been, 3014 tonnes. It says government confusion is to blame for the "misleading answers" and adds that in any case the gross weight of the units will be within the legal 44-tonne limit.