Representatives of the Freight Transport Association (FTA) met with the new secretary of state for transport, Alistair Darling, on September 4.

FTA used the opportunity to emphasise the needs of UK industry for reliable road and rail infrastructure in order to conduct its work on behalf of the economy and the consumer.

In recent weeks, FTA has identified the key road and rail trade routes on which industry relies and the need for both short and longer term improvements to these routes. Although the transport industry has become increasingly efficient in its techniques and operations, inevitably it runs into problems when obliged to work on road space and rail track of insufficient quality and capacity.

FTA's key message to Darling was that road and rail congestion produces unreliability, waste and extra costs and is very largely outside of the control of industrial road and rail users. FTA emphasised that it is for the government to supply an infrastructure fit for the purpose of sustaining industry needs.