Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effect of the decision by Hapag-Llloyd and Hamburg Sud to transfer operations from the Port of Tilbury to London Gateway on (a) rail and (b) road freight journeys; and what projection his Department has made of how many containers will transfer from rail to road as a result of this decision.

The Department made no specific assessment of these commercial, operational decisions.

The impact on local road and rail network will have been assessed as part of the planning process. The London Gateway planning consents require various inland infrastructure works to reflect the scope of the development and the potential levels of business and traffic. This includes works on the A13, Junction 30 of M25, and rail freight links that are to be undertaken when specified threshold levels of port development, and for the associated logistics park, are reached.

It is not necessarily the case that the transfer of one contract from Tilbury to London Gateway will affect the overall balance of containers currently sent by rail and road. Like Tilbury, London Gateway is served by rail as well as road. The DfT is supporting financially some rail freight flows from Tilbury and London Gateway in recognition of non-commercialised benefits, such as for the environment, from using rail rather than road for freight.