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The road train debate is back on
the agenda as the Department
for Transport is reviewing
whether to allow trials of Longer
Heavy Goods Vehicles (LHVs).
The two types of applications
undergoing research, which is
due to report back in summer
2007, are for maximum weights
of 60 and 84 tonnes.
The 60-tonne 25.25-metre
supertruck is the same weight of
a Challenger tank and the length
of a competition swimming
pool. The 84-tonne HGV would
be twice the weight and almost
twice the length of existing
HGVs. There are huge questions
over the safety, environmental
and social costs these vehicles
would impose on society as well
as the impact on more
sustainable forms of transport
such as rail and water.
The lorry manufacturers, the
logistics and road haulage
industry both here and in
Continental Europe claim that,
what they call the Eco link, the
most favoured option (see
diagram), will reduce congestion
by having fewer vehicles on the
highway and reduce pollution
per tonne kilometre.
The two units are designed so
that they can be split and driven
separately.
However, the claimed
environmental and congestion
benefits are unlikely to be
realised.
LHVs will compete with rail
freight and are likely to cause
modal shift from rail, which has
a much better environmental
record than road haulage.
The real costs of road
transport, including all the
additional external costs such as
accidents, pollution and road
maintenance, are already a
significant burden to the
taxpayer and mean that there is
not a level playing field between
the modes now.
Such vehicles would decimate
intermodal rail freight and some
bulk flows forcing trainloads of
freight back into our congested
road network. Remember per
tonne carried by rail produces
between four to ten times less
emissions than road transport,
depending on the weight of
products, and an average freight
train can remove 50 HGVs from
our roads.
The promoters are claiming
that these vehicles will be
restricted to motorways and
dual carriageways, but there is
no mechanism available to keep
them to this.
The reality is that these
vehicles will need local access to
THE THREAT OF
Philippa Edmunds of
Freight on Rail
warns that planned
supertrucks are
dangerous and bad
for the environment
20
“B-double” - articulated vehicle towing a semi-trailor with the second
semi trailor resting on the first - Up to 25.5 metres long and 60 tonnes