| 20 January 2000
ORR/00/03 Tom Winsor, the Rail Regulator, today launched his first national survey of freight customers in a bid to establish the nature and extent of barriers hindering the growth of rail freight traffic. In addressing a wide range of users and potential users ofthe rail freight system the Regulator said: "I have a duty to encourage the use and development ofthe network for freight. I want to know what barriers prevent people choosingrail to transport freight. This survey is your chance to tell me what you thinkabout rail as a transport mode. The need to get more freight off road and ontorail is a key part of the Governments transport policy. This can only happenif rail is able to meet the requirements of its customers. "This survey investigates how well the railways areperforming not only through the eyes of the train operators, but also throughthe experience of the end customer, the logistics manager, the distributionmanager, and the private terminal operator." Tom Winsor encouraged people to find time in their busyschedules to make their views known and use this chance to make an importantcontribution to the development of rail freight. The Regulator thanked the Shadow Strategic Rail Authority,the Freight Transport Association, and the Rail Freight Group for theirassistance in the preparation and publication of the survey. Notes for Editors: 1. The Regulator and the Shadow Strategic Rail Authority havekey roles to play in the promotion of freight by rail. The Railways Act 1993gives the Regulator a range of public interest duties including the duty toprotect the interests of users of railway services; to promote the use and development of the national railway network for freight and passengers, and topromote efficiency, economy and competition in the provision of railwayservices. The Strategic Rail Authority will have a responsibility to develop astrategy for rail freight and in its shadow form has already commissioned anumber of studies to help it in this regard. 2. The survey is being conducted on behalf of the Regulatorby consultants Business Planning & Research International. 3. A copy of the survey questionnaire can be found on the ORR Website. It can also be found on the Websites of the Freight Transport Association and the Railfreight Group. All three sites give the user the opportunity either to complete the questionnaire on line or to print off and return a hard copy. Alternatively copies of the questionnaire can be obtained from Simon Tunna or David Burton at Business Planning & Research International on 020 7261 9990. 4. The Regulator intends to publish a summary of the resultslater this year and to carry out this exercise annually so as to build up apicture of developing trends in the performance of the rail freight industry. 5. At the end of last year the Regulator began enforcementaction against Railtrack to secure additional capacity for freight (andpassengers) as part of the upgrade and improvement of the West Coast Main Line (WCML). | 
