No chance of freight

THE POSSIBILITY of freight on the waterways is being discussed again in the waterways press.

The thought behind this being it is 'greener' and keeps lorries of the roads, but alas, the practicability of this is obviously not realised.

Rochdale Canal

There was once a council that suggested using the Rochdale Canal to carry freight into Manchester. But it was pointed out this would no way be 'greener' as it would take over a day to negotiate all the locks, with the boat's engine churning out diesel fumes whilst a lorry would take less than an hour and carry many times the load!

So it never came to fruition.

There is only one canal, that into Sharpness, that has the depth to support the carrying of freight, as none of the others now have the depth.

Severn

There was a plan to use the Severn, of which the Sharpness is part, but though a boat was produced for the job and part of a port was constructed it never came to fruition.

There was part of a freight terminal built just outside Nottingham on the Trent, but that too was not finished.

Then there is the unreliability due to the many stoppages.