Evaluation of the policies in British Local Transport Plans with regard to the promotion of rail freight

Over the last couple of decades there has been a trend in Western Europe and North America towards making the railway industry more able to compete successfully with road for freight haulage through deregulation and/or structural change. This trend has been drive, partly, by a concern to produce more commercially viable railway industries, but also by concerns to reduce the environmental impacts of road haulage through modal shift. The latter in particular has led to the development of public policies supportive of rail freight, particularly at the national or international levels. This paper reports on qualitative research that analysed public policy aimed at promoting rail freight in Britain but, unusually, the focus was on local rather than national policy. The research was an investigation of the approach of local authorities to the encouragement of rail freight as evidenced through their Local Transport Plans. The paper concludes that in Britain there has been a significant amount of local policy-making for rail freight and that although national policy matters are of overriding importance, the role of local policy is significant and can be developed further.