Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 20 March 2018
873. Deputy John Deasy asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if data are available to demonstrate the impact the transfer of freight from rail to road has had over the past five to ten years on traffic volumes and congestion on main routes and in urban areas. [12870/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraI can confirm that data on changes in road and rail freight is available up to 2016 from the Central Statistics Office's Transport Omnibus, which is published annually. For ease of reference, I have provided a table containing estimates of rail and road freight for 2006 - 2016:
Table 1: Rail and Road Freight Measures in Tonne-ms (millions)
|
2006 |
2007 |
2008 |
2009 |
2010 |
2011 |
2012 |
2013 |
2014 |
2015 |
2016 |
|
|
Rail Freight |
207 |
129 |
103 |
79 |
92 |
105 |
91 |
99 |
100 |
96 |
101 |
|
Road Freight |
17,322 |
18707 |
17289 |
12071 |
10924 |
9941 |
9895 |
9138 |
9772 |
9844 |
11564 |
|
Rail % of total |
1.2% |
0.7% |
0.6% |
0.7% |
0.8% |
1.0% |
0.9% |
1.1% |
1.0% |
1.0% |
0.9% |
Freight volumes have fallen in general over the time period, while rail freight has been relatively consistent as a percentage of total freight.
The Deputy may also be interested in our Department's 2017 publication The Costs of Congestion - An Analysis of the Greater Dublin Area, which estimated the costs, in terms of time lost to road users, of aggravated congestion in the GDA.
