 In addition to operating up to 13 freight trains a day (removing an estimated 60 million kilometres of HGV journeys from the roads each year), the site would have looked to employ 3,500 people.The proposal was claimed by its proponents to be aligned with the Department for Transport's (and the previous Strategic Rail Authority's) "strategic rail freight interchange policy" which seeks to encourage the removal of road freight in favour of rail-based solutions.However, the Secretary of State ruled in his decision letter that, "The policy support that the proposal might otherwise enjoy from the SRA’s SRFI Policy is significantly reduced on account of the site’s distance from London and the M25."