Awareness of disparity between road and rail freight charges

The disparity in access charges for road and rail freight is “wellknown” within the Government, John Larkinson, Director of Railway Markets and Economics at the Office of Rail and Road, has admitted.

However, Larkinson said it isn’t up to the independent regulator to attempt to create a level playing field between road and rail in the future, as the “legal framework” to alter such charges is outside of his department’s jurisdiction.

Critics of the current system argue that there is no difference in

the price that drivers of 3.5-tonne and 44-tonne lorries have to pay to access the country’s road network, whereas different charging rates apply for differing freight train sizes and the goods that are carried onboard every time they use Network Rail metals.

Larkinson told RAIL: “What the Government and legal people choose to do in the future is a matter of public choice.

“The public policy choices between road and rail are not the things for the independent regulator to decide.”

He stressed the importance of getting right the forthcoming changes to the charges incurred by rail freight companies (a decision is expected to be published by June), concluding: “We can’t act outside our legal framework. However, we do very much recognise the challenges rail freight faces.

“We have seen what has happened in the past when we mishandled freight charges and we don’t want to make that mistake again.

“We’ve listened to the views of the rail freight industry.”