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Fewer lorries free up roads - £9.7m freight grant moves thousands of tankers into rail
13/09/1999
The biggest ever freight grant awarded by the Government will take thousands of lorries off Scottish roads every year. The £9.7 million grant to logistics firm TDG Nexus was made jointly by the Scottish Executive and the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR).
The funding means the company will use rail links rather than motorways and other roads to distribute bulk traffic from BP's site at Grangemouth to sites in England and Wales. This will eventually lead to 36,000 lorry loads of polyethylene and polypropylene being removed from Britain's roads every year.
Scottish Transport Minister Sarah Boyack and DETR Transport Minister Lord Macdonald announced the funding today, emphasising the Government's commitment to work together with companies to help them move more freight by rail.
Ms Boyack said:
"Moving freight off our roads is just one part of our aim to deliver a sustainable, effective and integrated transport system. Last week we announced that we will work together with hauliers to transfer an additional 15 million lorry/miles from Scottish roads every year by March 2002. Today's announcement goes some way to meeting this target, representing two million lorry/miles removed from Scottish roads every year.
"The environmental benefits of moving freight by rail rather than road are well known, but we must not forget that there are also benefits for other road users. Freight traffic volumes are a major contribution to traffic congestion. This Government is working together with firms to help them make the switch to rail, and fewer lorry journeys will free up Scotland's roads.
"This ambitious project will remove up to 36,000 lorry journeys from the roads each year for the next 10 years, and underlines the confidence which major companies have in the future of the rail freight industry. I hope other companies will follow suit and the Scottish Executive will do all it can to help ensure similar projects happen."
BACKGROUND
1. Under the Freight Facilities Grants Scheme, money is available towards the capital costs of rail and inland waterway freight equipment in cases where the traffic would otherwise move by road.
2. Today's announcement marks the fifth award of an FFG grant in two years after £3.045 million was awarded to Deanside Transit Ltd (Hillington) in August 1997, £680,000 awarded to Safeway's in November 1998, £870,000 awarded to HJ Banks in July 1999, and £2.5 million awarded to LAW Mining in September this year.
3. The £9.7 million grant to TDG Nexus will allow the company to provide facilities including Civil Engineering works, the provision of a weighbridge, the purchase of tractors and trailers, lighting loaders and other minor costs to be incurred.
News Release: SE0573/99
13 September, 1999