Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment she has made of the potential merits of expanding the use of rail freight.

The Government is committed to growing rail freight and unlocking the economic and environmental benefits which it can deliver, with industry estimating rail freight delivers economic benefits of around £2.45bn per year, including, cost savings to industry, environmental benefits and congestion relief.

The Government continues to incentivise modal shift from road to rail through the Mode Shift Revenue Support (MSRS) scheme, which financially supports the carriage of freight by rail and water on routes where road haulage has a financial advantage. The £20m scheme delivers high value for money and in 2021/22 removed around 900,000 HGVs off our congested road network, saving 58,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions. Funding for this scheme has been confirmed for a further 3 years.