A NOTORIOUS stretch of the A64 is to be used to pilot a new scheme to take lorries off the roads.

The plan to let the train take more of the strain could see a fall in the 1,000 lorries a day that currently thunder along the York to Scarborough road.

The initiative has the backing of Railtrack and freight train operating company, EWS, which is examining ways of attracting local businesses to make the switch from road to rail.

Sites for building depots for loading and unloading goods have already been identified in Scarborough, Seamer and Malton, and inward investment chiefs in York have been examining possible locations for a depot in the city.

Chris Millns, head of environmental enhancement at North Yorkshire County Council, said the first stage of the project, to identify what facilities already existed along the rail route, was nearly complete.

He said: "There are clear benefits to using rail freight. The damage caused by lorries to the road network would be lessened, the likelihood of accidents reduced, congestion cut down and communities along the route would have fewer lorries thundering past them. Rillington village springs to mind as one place that would benefit."

He said rail freight could also give a valuable economic boost to the east coast, with businesses no longer having to rely on one, long, largely single-carriageway road for their needs.

The loading depots will be "low key" affairs, probably built in existing sidings at either end of the route, said Mr Millns.

"They needn't be big, just capable of handling individual wagon loads in some cases," he said.

But he said cutting traffic get would be an uphill struggle. "If we can cut the number of lorries by ten per cent we would be doing very well. Half the battle will be in stemming the general rise in traffic which is a nationwide problem. We will start off small and hopefully the effect will snowball."

Bryn Jones, at City of York Council, said a rail freight link could give an economic boost to the city.

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