The waterways of the UK could once more be used to carry bulk freight as industry seeks more environmentally friendly ways of transporting cargo. Power stations need huge volumes of wood and waste by products to run biomass plants, and canals are beginning to be used for this purpose.
An energy services company is using the Aire and Calder Navigation canal system in Yorkshire to carry timber for the power industry, and this is being repeated in other parts of the country, according to the Freight Transport Association (FTA).
‘ There is huge potential for carrying biomass fuel, civic waste and building materials on the waterways’, said a spokesman for the FTA.