Rail prices force switch
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• A welsh coal producer says it has ditched railfreight because it is too expensive. Hauliers in the area are now picking up 80 loads a day.
Some 3,000 tonnes of coal a week was previously moved on a 10-mile rail link from Celtic Energy's Gilfach lago opencast ntine near Ammanford, north of Swansea to a washing station at Coed Bach.
Celtic says the coal will be moved by road until the mine closes early next year.
"Although there was no price increase this April we have found that railfreight is no longer financially viable," says a Celtic spokesman. "We have been subject to continual increases in rail costs."
But Transrail, the trainload company, says it is still hauling some coal on the rail link, adding that it has actually increased the amount of work it handles for Celtic by resuming the movement of 130,000 tonnes of anthracite a year.
Local MP Rhodri Glyn Thomas says Celtic does not have the necessary planning permission and that the people living in the nearby Gwendraeth Valley are being subjected to increased lorry traffic, pollution and danger.
Celtic Energy denies any breaches of planning laws.