Canals could be brought back into use across UK to ship freight, report suggests
Canals could be brought back into use to ship freight around Britain, a report has suggested.
Barges pulled by horses on bankside towpaths helped move vital goods around the country 200 years ago.
During the Industrial Revolution the canals were busy waterways transporting coal, iron and other heavy goods.
But a key blueprint for a major landlocked area plots a revival of the systems.
The upcoming Midlands Connect freight strategy suggests using the region’s canals to ship more goods – building on the industrial heritage of Birmingham and the Black Country.
“Where practicable, encourage modal shift to more sustainable modes,” the study says.
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“Transport modes such as water freight and rail freight are more sustainable and emit less per tonne carried, particularly carbon dioxide.
“To decarbonise freight further, modal shift needs to occur and our work needs to identify how we can deliver this.”
The report says using canals for freight must be “considered” as it is better for the environment and less vulnerable to congestion on roads and railways.
Currently around 13% of goods are shipped by sea and inland waterways.
Birmingham has 35 miles of canals – said to be more than Venice.
At their height, they were so busy that gas lighting was installed beside the locks to allow round-the-clock operation.
Boats were built without cabins for maximum carrying capacity, and a near-tidal effect was produced as swarms of narrowboats converged on the Black Country collieries at the same time every day.
Midlands Connect’s head of strategy Richard Bradley said: “We are evolving the way goods are transferred around the region and the country.
“This isn’t about taking a step back in history but using all the infrastructure we have and finding new ways and new plans to use everything we have.
“Our aim is to get more freight off roads, where traffic pollution is known to cause severe health problems in built-up areas, and canals could be a cleaner and greener way to deliver goods from A to B.”
