Guidance: Grant funding to transport freight by rail and water

The Department for Transport manages the sustainable distribution fund. This is funding provided to support the carriage of freight by rail that would otherwise be carried by road.

Summary of the awards

The Department for Transport is currently running 2 schemes that facilitate the purchase of the environmental and social benefits that result from using rail or water transport instead of road. These schemes are:

• Mode Shift Revenue Support (MSRS) scheme: assists companies with the operating costs associated with running rail and inland waterway freight transport instead of road (where rail/inland waterways are more expensive than road)
• Waterborne Freight Grant scheme (WFG): assists companies with the operating costs, for up to 3 years, associated with running coastal and short sea shipping freight transport instead of road (where short sea/ coastal shipping is more expensive than road)
• applications for the department’s freight grant schemes are prioritised in a bid round process. Further details on bid rounds are available on the department’s website. Guidance and application forms are available from the business finance and support finder

It should be noted that the awards listed are provisional maxima. In some cases, the award may not lead to a contract; in others, the amount agreed in a subsequent contract may be lower than the accepted bid. Furthermore there is no guarantee that traffic contracted in any round will continue to operate.

The traffic moved under each Mode Shift Revenue Support contract is closely monitored. Where traffic levels have been lower than those in the grantees’ contracts, reductions to the contract have been made. This process ensures the effective control of the budget and maximizes the amount of benefit that can be purchased through the scheme.

Awards before 2012

• Grant funding to support the transportation of freight by rail and water, December 2012 (PDF, 137KB)
• Supplementary guidance Mode Shift Revenue Support (MSRS) and Waterborne Freight Grant (WFG) schemes bid round dates, December 2012 (PDF, 138KB)
• Grant funding to support the transportation of freight by rail and water, September 2012 (PDF, 142KB)
• Supplementary guidance resource funding (MSRS) bid round dates, August 2012 (PDF, 84KB)
• Grant funding to support the transportation of freight by rail and water, June 2012 (PDF, 149KB)
• Grant funding to support the transportation of freight by rail and water, February 2012 (PDF, 33KB)
• Supplementary guidance resource funding (MSRS) bid round dates, February 2012 (PDF, 26KB)
• grant funding to support the transportation of freight by rail and water, November 2011 (PDF, 50KB)
• grant funding to support the transportation of freight by rail and water, September 2011 (PDF, 26KB)
• grant funding to support the transportation of freight by rail and water, June 2011 (PDF, 30KB)
• grant funding to support the transportation of freight by rail and water, February 2011 (PDF, 57KB)
• summary of of the awards made under the Sustainable Distribution Fund, 2009 to 2010 (PDF, 56KB)
• grant funding to support the transportation of freight by rail and water, November 2010 (PDF, 33KB)
• grant funding to support the transportation of freight by rail and water, September 2010 (PDF, 31KB)
• grant funding to support the transportation of freight by rail and water, June 2010 (PDF, 58KB)
• grant funding to support the transportation of freight by rail and water, February 2009 (PDF, 43KB)
• grant funding to support the transportation of freight by rail and water, December 2008 (PDF, 45KB)
• grant funding to support the transportation of freight by rail and water, September 2008 (PDF, 50KB)
• grant funding to support the transportation of freight by rail and water, June 2008 (PDF, 33KB)
• grant funding to support the transportation of freight by rail and water, February 2008 (PDF, 44KB)
• awards before 2008: grant funding to transport freight by rail