Select committee joins debate on Piggyback
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• A group of MPs and House of Lords peers looks set to persuade the transport select committee to study the foundering road/rail piggyback project.
The attempt to involve the powerful House of Commons committee represents another try by the project's promoter, the Piggyback Consortium, to embarrass Rai1track into backing the £250m scheme, which could lure 400,0(X) lorries off the road each year.
Lord Berkeley, Piggyback Consortium chairman and an hereditary peer of the House of Lords, says he has persuaded an informal all-party group of MPs and peers interested in promoting rail freight to write to the transport select committee asking it to study the issue.
The group, which has a membership of about 100 MPs and 50 peers and is chaired by Lawrie Quinn, Labour MP for Scarborough and Whitby, agreed last week to write to the committee and to deputy prime minister John Prescott, says Berkeley.
RaiItrack, the provider of track and signalling in Britain, has said it will decide by the end of the month whether to back the project, but the chances of it going ahead look remote. It believes a cheaper option would be to prepare the rail network to carry 9ft 6in containers on Euro-compatible wagons.