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Doubts over Wales by rail
Page 18
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Mid-Wales log loads go from road to rail — but not everyone is
impressed. David Harris reports.
A FORESTRY COMMISSION campaign to reduce the number of trucks on mid-Wales roads has been hailed a success by the commission — but a failure by the haulier who took part.
Kieron Owen won the contract to can-y timber from three forested areas outside Aberystwyth to the railhead. But at the end of a fiveweek trial he can see no way the switch could be made permanent.
Owen, whose five trucks rely almost entirely on timber haulage, argues that although the rail option would indeed take trucks off mid-Wales roads, it would be more expensive and less efficient.
The trial involved timber bound for the Kronospan chipboard factory in Chirk, near Oswestry. Owen explains: "It's 80 miles by road from Aberystwyth to Chirk, but it's 110 miles by train.
It takes two hours by lorry but four by train because they have to go via Shrewsbury and Wrexham. And we found out that the train uses 3.7 litres of diesel per mile.
-Wales is too small a country to justify timber travelling by rail," he concludes.
Despite Owen's analysis. consultants for the Forestry Commission are to consider seeking grants for two specially designed trains and a 10-year contract to remove thousands of truck journeys from Welsh roads.
A spokesman says: "It would reduce the amount of HGV work but obviously hauliers would still be needed to take the timber to the railhead. And to be honest, we have a shortage of hauliers at the moment"