FTA calls for a boost to inland water freight

The FTA’s Freight by Water group has said that more should be done to boost inland water freight.

This comes after the Department for Transport released 2015 statistics for domestic waterborne freight – demonstrating a 16 per cent increase of freight moved to 31.4 billion tonne kilometres. Although the FTA group said the figures are encouraging, it added that more needs to be done to promote growth.

Alex Veitch, FTA’s policy lead for water freight, said: “It is encouraging to see that the volume of inland water freight has remained steady, but it has the potential to make a significant contribution to alleviating road traffic congestion in London and other major cities across the UK.

“Unfortunately there are many planning and regulatory barriers that prevent this from happening so the Freight by Water group is calling for the establishment of a national Strategic Water Network to overcome these barriers and enable shippers to make more use of this key resource.”