12 May 2014
Case for freight made to Planning Minister
In the ongoing campaign to secure proper recognition for rail freight in the Scottish Government’s strategic planning process, RFG has joined forces with the Scottish Council Development & Industry and Transform Scotland to urge Planning Minister Derek Mackay to ensure that the final National Planning Framework 3 document incorporates RFG’s National Development proposal to enhance ‘the strategic freight connectivity of Scotland’s inter-urban rail network’. The joint letter states:
‘Given the scale of rail freight involvement in Scotland’s export trade (and the domestic intermodal business, in which ports have little or no role), our three organisations share the concern that this crucial sector of Scotland’s trade infrastructure is entirely absent from the Scottish Government’s strategic programme of National Developments‘Both sea and rail freight (unlike road haulage) are critically dependent on terminal facilities in order to provide access to their route infrastructure – and it is illogical, inconsistent and unfair for one of the two to feature prominently in the list of geographically-specific National Developments while the other has none.’The letter is available at <
http://www.rfg.org.uk/sites/default/files/RFG%20SCDI%20Transform%20letter%20re%20NPF3%20and%20rail%20freight.pdf>.