🕒 Article read time: 2 minutes
Government pledges to promote rail freight in King's Speech
The government’s announcement will see the introduction of a statutory duty on Great British Railways (GBR) to promote the use of rail freight, alongside an overall growth target set by the Secretary of State and safeguards to ensure that freight operators continue to receive fair access to the network.
The announcement went on to say that the current rail system is characterised by competing and often conflicting incentives: operators are incentivised to focus on their own revenue and costs, while Network Rail focuses on infrastructure upgrades and maintenance, with little incentive to ensure that these upgrades reflect passenger demand and areas for growth. This leads to huge inefficiency for both passengers and freight.
Ellis Shelton, Logistics UK's Senior Policy Advisor said: "The planned Railways Bill should end confusion over rail reform and it is encouraging that Great British Railways will have a statutory duty to promote the use of rail freight in addition to an overall growth target set by the Secretary of State.
"While we welcome the government’s commitment for safeguards to ensure freight operators receive fair access to the network, we will scrutinise the details when they are published to ensure that rail freight growth is not inhibited by a lack of track capacity or high costs."
Published On: 25/07/2024 13:25:18
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News In Brief
City of Sheffield shows the way to clean air zone success with 21% drop in pollution
New data for the first year of Sheffield’s Clean Air Zone (CAZ) has revealed significant improvements in air quality in the city, with a 16% fall in nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels within the zone and an even bigger drop of 21% across the whole city.
Introduced in June last year, the zone covers an area of the city roughly corresponding to the inner ringroad, and charges lorries, vans, taxis, buses and coaches each time they enter. Private cars and motorbikes are exempt.
The council has said much of the success in reducing pollution is down to a series of schemes to compensate city residents for upgrading to cleaner vehicles, which they describe as “extremely successful”.
1,081 people received a grant to upgrade an older non-compliant vehicle, with 514 receiving retrospective funding for a vehicle they had already upgraded.
Every single location monitored within the zone showed a drop in pollution in 2023 compared to previous years despite volumes of traffic remaining broadly the same, suggesting that those driving the most polluting vehicles have been incentivised to switch to cleaner alternatives.
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