DEDICATED lorry lanes on the M5 and M6 are inevitable because freight could literally be going off the rails, it is claimed.

This warning comes from the Rail Freight Group, which fears an increase of high-speed Virgin passenger trains along the West Coast Main Line will force freight on to the roads.

The pressure group claims the M5, M6, M1, M25 and M20 will all soon have 24-hour lorry lanes if the Government decides to exclude freight trains from part of the line.

At present nearly half of the UK's rail freight uses the track for part of its journey, an equivalent to 400 lorries an hour, 24-hours a day, seven days a week.

"The closure of the West Coast line to freight is a real fear and a real problem to the whole of the freight industry," said RFG chairman Tony Berkeley.

'Vital route'

"About 100 million tonnes of goods are transported by freight each year in the UK and 43 per cent of operations use this line at some point.

"The Government needs to ensure that we don't lose this vital route because I can see many freight companies' level of business going down. Many may simply go bust."

Although Virgin was currently upgrading tracks to run its new higher-speed tilting trains, a spokesman confirmed that there had been no talk of removing freight from the West Coast Line.

"We'll be running an increased number of upgraded passenger trains, operating at faster speeds, but as far as we're concerned the new network will be open to both freight and passenger trains," said the spokesman.

"The contract we have with Railtrack is to upgrade the line from London to Glasgow, but the eventual freight capacity running on the line will not be decided by us."

Other fears for the freight industry include the refugee situation at the Channel Tunnel, with the current disturbances damaging trade and confidence.

"Although passenger services haven't been disrupted too badly, freight train services have fallen from 15 a night to just two," said Alan Peats, chief executive with RFG.

"It seems pretty grim for the industry at the moment. Two new freight depots have recently opened and we hope people working there won't suffer in the future."

The lorry lanes would be needed if freight services were cut to achieve the Government's freight growth target of 80 percent as part of its Ten Year Transport plan.