Railfuture members are being asked to contact their MPs to take action to stop the Government allowing 60 and 84 tonne lorries on to Britain's roads. The current limit is 44 tonnes.

Not only will the super lorries bring more disturbance and danger to our streets they will undermine rail freight, as well as exacerbating the problems of climate change and congestion.

Please ask your MP to sign early day motion 730 – proposed by Labour MP Kelvin Hopkins – urging the Government not to allow trials of super trucks and support rail freight instead.

Please can you ask your MP to lobby Transport Minister Dr Stephen Ladyman against the super trucks.

The Department for Transport is currently reviewing whether to allow trials of super trucks, known as LHVs, which range from 83ft to 100ft long with weights of 60 to 84 tonnes.

The 60-tonne 83ft super truck is the same weight of a Challenger tank and the length of a 25-metre Olympic swimming pool.

The 84-tonne truck would be twice the weight and almost twice the length of existing heavy lorries.

There are huge questions over the safety, environmental and social costs these vehicles would impose on society as well as the impact on more sustainable forms of transport such as rail and water.

But rail freight'’s environmental credentials are well-proven.

Rail produces between four to ten times less emissions than road transport, per tonne carried.

An average freight train can remove 50 HGVs from our roads.

The public have already shown they are opposed to these super trucks on our roads which are the most congested in western Europe.

Freight on Rail is campaigning for enhancements on the rail network which will cater for longer and heavier trains.

The impact of super trucks if they are involved in an accident will be proportionately greater because of their extra weight, with severe implications on braking distances, manoeuvrability, possible jack-knifing and overtaking complications.

In 2005 in accidents involving HGVs - ROSPA 2006

6 people were killed, 65 serious injured and overall 750 injured on urban roads

49 people were killed, 275 seriously injured and overall 2092 injured in rural areas

24 people were killed, 118 seriously injured and overall 595 people injured on motorways

Super trucks will decimate intermodal rail freight and some bulk flows thus forcing trainloads of freight back into our congested road network increasing harmful emissions. If market conditions remain constant, intermodal rail freight is forecast to grow by over 60 per cent over the next 10 years.

The promoters claim these vehicles will be restricted to motorways, dual carriageways and major roads, but there is no mechanism available to keep them to this and the type of road has not been fully clarified.

The reality is that these vehicles will need local access to distribution hubs which would not be on motorways/dual carriageways, but on roads which are totally unsuited to vehicles of this scale.

When the limit was raised to 44 tonnes similar restrictions were not enforced.

An opinion survey carried out in August 2005 by NOP showed that over two-thirds of the public were opposed to a proposal – under consideration by the Government - to increase by one-third the length and weight of lorries permitted on the UK’'s roads.

Information from Philippa Edmunds Campaigner Philippa at freightonrail.org.uk

More information: www.freightonrail.org.uk