The Freight Transport Association (FTA) says that while the recent sale and purchase of ports and airports indicates substantial growth potential due to increased trade with Europe and the Far East, adequate investment is needed in the road and rail networks serving the ports.
FTA deputy chief executive James Hookham said that the recent foreign investment in major UK transport port and airport infrastructure is a sure sign that there is money to be made from serving the UK economy.
But, he said, the motorways and rail freight facilities that serve the UK’s international freight movements are simply not up to the job. “The government seems to have no recognition of the extent of the problem, nor a clear vision of how to deal with it.”
He noted that the forthcoming Eddington Report on transport infrastructure, which will look at the long-term links between transport and the UK’s economic productivity, growth and stability, considers these prospects, but for the period after 2015.
“But what of the situation between now and then? The congestion problems are here today in 2006, and will only be worse in nine years’ time unless the chancellor and the government commit to a sustained increase in transport infrastructure investment.”
He added that doing nothing until 2015 is not an option.
“The government has to recognise that the problem is here now. Our 21st century economy and society must have the availability of a 21st century transport infrastructure,” he concluded
