One of the Government's most unpopular policies over the past 50 years has been to encourage the growth of freight by road.

Now it is at it again, despite the vast majority of people in Britain wanting the exact opposite - the transfer of more freight from road to rail.

The latest threat to rail freight comes from proposals to extend the length of articulated lorries, even though most people say they are too long already.

The Department for Transport has been carrying out a "consultation" on the proposals for just over two months.

The Rail Freight Group has warned that the DfT' s own impact assessment says the plan would reduce rail freight growth by two thirds over the next 15 years.

In its upside-down world of logic, the DfT claims that it is a "benefit" if less money is spent on rail freight.

‘It is deeply worrying that despite the huge impacts on domestic rail freight growth, the DfT wish to allow longer lorries to operate," said RFG policy manager Maggie Simpson.

"This cuts across all their previous commitments to multimodal transport, to congestion relief and to climate change. We urge ministers to look again at this damaging proposal."

Other protests have come from the Campaign for Better Transport, Freight on Rail, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, the national cyclists’ organisation CTC, Friends of the Earth, Living Streets, RoadPeace and Sustrans.

They say the plan to increase lorry lengths could lead to molre road deaths and result in more road congestion.

An independent report commissioned by Freight on Rail, Review of Government proposals for longer semi trailers, demonstrates that significant flaws in the Government’s own research have led it to seriously underestimate the dangers posed by longer lorries.

Lorries are already 384% more likely to be involved in fatal crashes on local roads than cars.

Campaign for Better Transport's chief executive, Stephen Joseph, said: "The Government’s research is misleading and inaccurate. All the evidence points to longer lorries being more dangerous."

Philippa Edmunds, Freight on Rail manager, said: “Longer lorries will undermine low carbon energy-efficient rail traffic, particularly the emerging supermarket trade which has the highest potential growth."

Shadow Transport Secretary Maria Eagle said she is "appalled" at the prospect of longer lorries.

Ms Eagle said: "Communities up and down the country will be appalled at the thought of longer HGVs coming through their towns and villages."

The proposal is just one more piece of evidence that the monstrous road lobby is crawling out from the murky swamp where it has been hiding for a few years. It is still just as dangerous.

London cyclist Daniel Barnes is riding the Etape du Tour on 11 July 2011 in memory of his close friend Dan Cox who was killed by a left-turning lorry at Dalston Junction in February.

Dan will be raising money for the London Cycling Campaign's No More Lethal Lorries Campaign and the intensive care unit of the Royal London hospital.

You can donate at Dan versus the Mountain