W Yorks canal extended
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• Britain's first new stretch of commercial canal in 90 years has opened and, in one corner of the country at least, it seems poised to re-open the old battle for freight.
British Coal has stumped up £20m to add a 3km stretch to the Aire and Calder Navigation Canal in West Yorkshire; this will allow mining to be resumed at a local open-cast site. The canal carries around 2.5 million tonnes of freight a year, with each 500-tonne barge taking the equivalent of 200 lorry loads of coal to power stations, and others bringing oil from Humberside's Immingham terminal.
The quantity of freight carried on all inland and coastal water ways has remained constant at two billion tonne/kilometres over the past two years.
Aire and Calder canal manager Mike Harrison says it is now stepping up its drive to take business from road hauliers.
However, the Freight Transport Association remains unconvinced about any largescale return to the water. "The waterways will always remain at the margin because you cannot connect door to door and goods have to be loaded on and off by lorry," it says.