Rail threat to timber
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• Timber hauliers working in Kielder, Northumberland could be hit by plans to reopen rail services to the Borders—a move that could remove hundreds of trucks from the roads.
Borders Transport Futures is putting forward a private bill in Parliament in November about restarting services on the Waverley Rail Line. If the bill gets Royal Assent the first trains mild be running in 2001. O Belgium, Luxembourg and France plan to launch a railfreight freeway between Antwerp and Lyons, starting in January 1998.
EU Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock wants open competition on freeways, but this time access will be restricted to national railway operators.
"We do not want competition between railway companies; competition with road hauliers is bad enough," says France's new Communist Transport Minister, Jean-Claude Gayssot.