Examination of Witnesses (Questions 420
- 422)
WEDNESDAY 22 MARCH 2000
MR DAVID
LOWE, MR
GRAHAM EWER,
MR MIKE
GIDLOW, MR
ANDREW IVES
AND MR
DAVID ATTON
420. Do you think it is possible to improve
the design of British roads to make them more resistant to the
damage caused by lorries?
(Mr Gidlow) I cannot comment. It is not an area on
which we have done any work at all.
421. Okay.
(Mr Ives) I do think we should come back to the question
of the vehicle itself and its ability to create less impact on
the roads. There are technologies in suspension systems which
could reduce the environmental damage, so that is the other side
of that coin.
Chairman: Thank you. Mr Stevenson?
Mr Stevenson
422. I have a question for both sets of witnesses,
please? Would you care to offer a view—a very brief one—as
to why it is that we have, allegedly, discrepancies in fuel—not
allegedly, factual discrepancies—in fuel duty and VED duty
that benefits Continental operators to the disadvantage of United
Kingdom operators and yet, on the Continent, they carry three
and even four times as much freight by rail as we do in the United
Kingdom. Do you see the point? Why is it, if we are so disadvantaged
we only have one-third of the rail freight operations that they
have on the Continent with all their fiscal advantages?
(Mr Gidlow) The real problem is that rail is not a
viable alternative. The tunnel structures, bridge structures and
so forth on the Continent permit lorries to be loaded onto trains
and iso-containers to be put onto trains. Regrettably we have
tunnels which restrict the use and sidings which restrict the
length, so the train gauge as such, which is weights, heights,
widths and lengths is very much a restriction and there are no
alternatives to road for much of the freight haulage in the United
Kingdom. Our paper very much says we really ought to have an alternative
and viable option and it would be very expensive, but it might
not be more expensive than putting down new motorways to accommodate
the extra traffic.
Chairman: Gentlemen, you have been very tolerant.
I apologise for keeping you longer than I intended. Thank you
very much indeed.
| 
