A.35 Major rail freight terminals - The Government has published a Written Ministerial Statement to support the development of, and investment in, strategic rail freight interchanges (SRFIs). This statement is supported by a detailed SRFI guidance document.
A.36 SRFIs: Network Rail support - The Government has asked Network Rail to support the development of a network of SRFIs, working with the wider logistics industry to: speed up the delivery of SRFI sites to meet business demand; assist with funding; and establish appropriate delivery vehicles for rail infrastructure elements of such proposals.
A.37 Strategic Rail Freight Network (SFRN) - The Government will support Network Rail to invest £55 million in the SRFN to help deliver schemes that remove bottlenecks and improve capability and longer-term connectivity to the UK's major ports. This will include the Ely-Soham doubling scheme to remove a bottleneck on the Felixstowe-Nuneaton route, and gauge clearance of additional rail freight routes in the Midlands between Syston junction and Stoke.
A.38 Long-duration incidents and delays - The Government will deliver the recommendations from the Motorway Incidents Review to ensure it can reduce the frequency of long-duration incidents and delay to heavy goods vehicles (HGVs). This includes a £3 million fund to assist police forces to purchase laser scanning equipment to help speed up the investigation of serious incidents.
A.39 Semi-trailers - As announced on 11 October 2011, the Government will carry out a trial of longer semi-trailers. The trial will commence in January 2012 and last up to 10 years, with the anticipated value of the trial being an estimated £33 million to operators.
A.40 Operator licensing regime - The Government will explore opportunities to support green technologies through changes to the operator licensing regime, to reflect the increased costs to industry from low emission technologies that increase the overall weight of the vehicles.
A.41 Fuel efficiency technologies for the logistics industry - The Government is on 29 November 2011 launching an industry-led task force to promote use of fuel efficient, low emission road freight technologies. This will help to broker successful engagement between industry, Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) and local authorities on trialling and implementing measures that support the use of low emission technologies and behaviours at minimal burden to the industry.
A.42 HGVs: low emission technology - The Government will invest £8 million to pump prime the procurement of low emission HGV technologies and their supporting infrastructure. The Government will work with the Technology Strategy Board to launch a competition for this funding in March 2012.
A.43 Quiet night time deliveries - The Government will consider the need for further guidance on quiet night time deliveries as part of a forthcoming wider review. The Government will ask the Noise Abatement Society and the Freight Transport Association to: build on the Quiet Deliveries Demonstration Scheme by further developing the existing scheme's best practice guidance into a toolkit that includes standards for quiet night time deliveries; and identify whether further government guidance is needed to promote uptake.
A.44 Inclement weather conditions preparation - The Government will work with others to trial the temporary use of snow ploughs attached to certain types of heavy duty vehicles. Where necessary, the Government will consider relaxing certain weights and dimensions legislation to facilitate this.
A.45 Skills for Logistics - The Government will provide £4 million to Skills for Logistics to improve training approaches to increase the competitiveness and productivity of the logistics sector.