Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he plans to take to ensure that new rail freight terminals are appropriately sited to benefit the national economy.

The National Networks National Policy Statement (NN-NPS) sets out Government’s policy for Strategic Rail Freight Interchange (SRFI) development. It states the importance of SRFIs being located near the business markets they will serve – major urban centres, or groups of centres. The NN-NPS states that to facilitate modal shift from road to rail, a network of SRFIs is needed across the regions to serve regional, sub-regional and cross-regional markets with good connectivity with both the road and strategic rail freight network.