BRITISH TRANSPORT MINISTER SEES ?NO EASY ANSWER? TO ROAD CONGESTION

BRITISH TRANSPORT MINISTER SEES ôNO EASY ANSWERö TO ROAD CONGESTION    John Spellar, British Minister of Transport, said growth in road traffic in the United Kingdom has led to congestion and a “lesser resilience of supply chains,” despite investments in new highways and rail infrastructures.
   “I’m not saying that there is an easy answer to this,” Spellar told a conference of the U.K. Freight Transport Association on the theme “Focusing on crisis management.”
   The British government has faced criticisms from the trucking industry over cuts in funding for transport and the introduction of European-wide regulations that reduce the working hours of truck drivers.
   The British government will conduct private studies into nighttime deliveries by trucks to ease the pressures on road infrastructures, Spellar said.
   Responding to industry concerns that road congestion is expected to worsen over the next 10 years, Spellar said the British government is putting some emphasis on “road traffic management” measures, such as systems that send alerts to drivers about traffic congestion points.
   British transport officials are also working with industry and academics to assess contingency planning systems that can cope with supply chain disruptions, he said.
   “Shortage of goods and services can follow quickly, more quickly than several years ago, if there is a disruption of transport,” he told the conference.