Road to rail
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The current proposal by the EU Commission to introduce road-pricing to reduce the attraction of transporting goods by road is misguided. It is a broadbrush approach that is unlikely to be effective and will unnecessarily increase prices across the board to the consumer. A gradual, and eventually massive, transfer of goods from road to rail is, however, environmentally desirable.
The solution is a regulatory and licensing structure that brings about a transfer of goods from road to rail. Many categories of goods (eg fresh food, live animals. express parcels, outsize
loads, etc) are not suitable for rail transport by rail; but many categories of goods (e.g frozen and processed food, domestic electrical appliances, clothing, construction materials, etc) are suitable.
Regulations are needed that lay down the maximum distance radius from the loading point within which specified categories of goods are permitted to be moved by road (it harks back to the old licensing system, but so what!). This would force a transfer of goods in those specified categories on to rail for movement over longer
distances, and would cause an increase in cost to the consumer only for those products. Such a regulatory system would have to be applied consistently across the EU, but the specified radius would need to be variable to take account of local geographical factors, such as ease of access to the rail network and population density. What are the radiuses I have in mind? In the UK, maybe 80km in the South-east ranging to 250km in the Scottish Highlands, Duncan Loft, Manchesto: