£3 million to cut congestion

More than 400 lorry journeys a week are to be cut from Scotland's busy road network following a funding announcement to cut congestion and reduce emissions.

Over £3 million of funding has been allocated to two haulage companies for the provision of two new freight rail services from the central belt to Inverness.

Eddie Stobart Limited will receive up to £982,000 of funding from two grant schemes to help fund a new rail freight service transporting Tesco goods between Grangemouth and Inverness.

John G Russell has been awarded up to £2.1 million in two separate funding allocations for a new Coatbridge to Inverness rail freight service.

Speaking at the opening of Tesco's new distribution centre in Livingston Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson said:

"As a Government we are committed to getting more freight off Scotland's roads and onto rail and water. By taking more lorries off our roads this funding will help ease congestion and reduce damage to the environment.

"Many of us have experienced congestion on roads such as the A9. These awards will help free up traffic flow on the A9 and reduce emissions.

"This funding will remove 3.17 million lorry miles from Scotland's roads a year and deliver £6.3m in environmental benefits over the next five years.

"Projects such as this make an important contribution towards achieving our ambitious target of reducing Scottish emissions by 80 per cent by 2050. This target is twice as ambitious as the UK target and signals Scotland's serious intent to lead the global effort to combat climate change.

Sir Terry Leahy, Chief Executive of Tesco said:

"Tesco is committed to helping the environment and by moving this freight onto rail it is estimated we will save over 13,000 road journeys a year. This shows just how ambitious Tesco is when it comes to cutting our environmental footprint, while delivering the very best for our customers.

"I am delighted to officially open the distribution centre in Livingston and to see for myself the real benefit for Tesco customers, who will now be able to take advantage of increased product availability and wider ranges of both local and national goods."

The REPS grant provides operating subsidy to companies who wish to transfer freight from road to rail where the rail option is more costly.

The award to Eddie Stobart Ltd includes £525,000 of Freight Facilities Grant Funding (FFG) for the provision of 70 new curtain sided inter-modal units and £457,000 of Rail Environmental Benefit Procurement Scheme (REPS) funding to help with the running costs.

John G Russell funding package includes a £1.84 million FFG towards the capital costs of terminal works in Inverness and intermodal containers for a rail freight service. In addition they will receive £257,975 of REPS funding to help the running costs of the new service.

This builds on the very successful Stobart/Tesco Daventry-Grangemouth service launched in 2006 with FFG support from the Scottish Government and REPS support from DfT and the Scottish Government.