Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to encourage the growth of rail freight.

The Government is committed to transporting more goods by rail. The Government published a Rail Freight Strategy to provide a stable policy framework to enable rail freight to grow and achieve its potential. The Government is committed to working with the rail freight industry to support its continued success. The Strategy can be found at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/552492/rail-freight-strategy.pdf

To support future growth of the rail freight industry the Secretary of State also confirmed that Government intends to continue investment in improving the rail freight network in Control Period 6 (2019-2024) as part of the regulatory funding settlement.