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The government plans to remove 631 million truck kilometres from UK roads by awarding £44m in grants to companies that transport freight by rail. Transport Minister Tom Harris predicts that these grants will do away with 2.1 million truck journeys over the next three years. "The aim [of the Rail Environmental Benefit Procurement Scheme] is to secure a major shift of goods from road onto rail," he says. "This will make a significant contribution towards reducing road congestion, accidents and carbon  emissions."

James Hookham, deputy chief executive at the Freight Transport Association, says: "As the economy grows we will need to move as much freight by rail as we can. We are going to see more container traffic coming into the UK and it is important that as much of this as possible goes by rail."

The companies that have received grants are: Direct Rail Services (£1.7m), EWS (£4m), Eddie Stobart (£707,000), Fastline (£386,000), Freightliner (£28.6m), GB Railfreight (£5.6m), John G Russell Transport (£1.4m) and Kuehne and Nagel (£1.4m). n EWS research into the impact of longer, heavier vehicles (LHVs) suggests that their introduction in the UK could have a serious impact on rail freight. Over 40% of aggregate rail freight would shift from rail to road and nearly 17% of rail business in the metal sector would move to road if LHVs were introduced, the research found.