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Muted reaction to canal freight plan
Page 18
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PLANS TO BOOST the volume of freight carried by London's waterways have been greeted with scepticism by local operators.
A new study on behalf of British Waterway and Transport for London has concluded that canals in the west of the capital could take 640,0(X/ tonnes a year of freight off the roads, saving over half a million truck miles a year.
The report. Developing Water Borne Freight on the West London Canal Network (WI.CM, focused on 2.5km either side of the 42km lock-free section of the Grand Union Canal, Plans are also in the pipeline to develop Fast London's underused stretch of canals for freight in the run-up to the Olympics.
But operators are quick to underline the drawbacks. Steve Barclay director of Barking-based Warton Freight Services, says: "The plans sound impossible I can't see it being viable. It seems like a backwards step," British Waterways has announced plans to double the amount of freight that is carried on UK waterways by 2010, from the current figure of three million tonnes of cargo a year.