Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of how Great British Railways can advance rail freight transition from road freight.

The Government considers that Great British Railways (GBR) will play a significant role in advancing rail freight transition from road freight through providing a new offer for rail freight. In particular, the Government committed to introducing a rail freight growth target in both the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail, May 2021, and the Transport Decarbonisation Plan, July 2021, which GBR will have an important role in delivering. Alongside that, GBR will work closely with industry to support rail freight, including through a Strategic Freight Unit which will be dedicated to improving performance and efficiency across the network for freight customers. GBR will also play an important role in ensuring rail freight is embedded in a new 30-year strategy, with a duty on GBR to promote and grow rail freight to help drive rail freight growth recognising the sector’s significant economic and environmental benefits.

Government will continue to explore the potential to increase freight capacity on the rail network to help deliver environmental benefits by reducing carbon emissions across the freight sector, as well as contribution to alleviating congestion on Britain’s roads.