Oral Answers to Questions — Transport – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 10 February 1997.
Mr. William O'Brien:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what steps he is taking to encourage the transportation of freight in Yorkshire by rail rather than road; and if he will make a statement. [13357]
Mr John Watts
, Slough
The key to the revival of rail freight is privatisation. [Laughter.] Hon. Members may scoff, but it is a fact that the amount of freight carried by rail declined steadily throughout the years of state ownership, but that it has recently started to increase. The new private sector freight companies are attracting new traffic to the railway. Meanwhile, we will continue to make available grants to encourage the shift of freight from road to rail.[Interruption.]
Miss Betty Boothroyd
Speaker of the House of Commons
Order. The question is about Yorkshire.
Mr. O'Brien:
is the Minister aware that the rail freight terminal serving Yorkshire and the northern region is in my Constituency? It is a key terminal, linking the Yorkshire region with towns in the European Community. The mode of travel for freight is now such that we can introduce a speedy, efficient, door-to-door container service from Wakefield to towns in Europe.
Is the Minister aware of the differences between the piggyback consortium and Railtrack concerning the rail gauge enhancement and of the difficulties that those differences are causing? What will he do to knock heads together so that we can get that system into operation? If the Euro-terminal in my constituency is to succeed, the service must be operating efficiently. Will he ensure that the enhancement of the rail gauge is not put on the back burner or delayed, creating difficulties in getting the terminal operating from my constituency?
Mr John Watts
, Slough
I am well aware of that excellent new facility, because I took a close interest in the provision of assistance for it from Government funds.
We have appointed consultants to monitor the work undertaken by Railtrack on the piggyback enhancement proposals so that we shall be ready to make a rapid decision should it apply for a freight facilities grant to contribute towards the enhancement. The hon. Gentleman may be interested to know that some piggyback services can already start to operate commercially because of the development of the spine wagon, which I launched at Rosyth at the end of last year. He will also have noted that English, Welsh and Scottish railways has been in discussions with Milk Marque about the resumption of milk trains using piggyback wagons to carry the tanker trailers.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
In a general election, each Constituency chooses an MP to represent them. MPs have a responsibility to represnt the views of the Constituency in the House of Commons. There are 650 Constituencies, and thus 650 MPs. A citizen of a Constituency is known as a Constituent
