Railways and Canals Enter Pipelines Business
Page 13
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
FROM OUR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT THE State railways and canals have entered the battle for Britain's first trunk pipeline, regarded by many as the forerunner of a new and revolutionary type of transport undertaking.
The Boards have entered into a profitsharing agreement with Trunk Pipelines Ltd. (an agglomeration of interests beaded by bankers) to transport goods by pipe from Canvey Island to Ellesmere Port, mainly over State-owned land.
The plan has been submitted to Mr. Richard Wood, Minister of Power, who has to decide whether permission to go ahead shall be granted to this group, or to their rival, an oil consortium whose application has been with him for a short time.
I understand that Mr. Wood is not going to hurry over his decision.
Mr. Wood will not be helped in his judgment by the knowledge that Mr. Marples must have given at least his formal blessing to the joint State enterprise with Trunk Pipelines Ltd. In addition, this organization is firmly pushing the idea that pipes should become an essential public service, while the oil consortium is primarily interested in piping oil.
The Labour Party will see a glimmer of hope in the fact that the Boards will have the right to subscribe up to 50 per cent of the capital issued by the company, and to acquire the operating assets "under certain conditions ". Most of the 262-milc route proposed by the new applicants is along canal or railway property. Provisions in last year's Transport Act enable the Boards to exploit their land in this way.
Only six private landlords are involved over the whole length from whom entirely new wayleave agreements would be required. Agreement would also be needed from the owners of three private bridges and of land above tunnels that would be used.
• In contrast, the '317-mile rival project would involve about 800 landowners.
It is accepted that a line from Thames to Mersey, bisecting the country diagonally, is the best base on which to form a pipeline grid. Spurs leading from this line could serve London, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool.
In the long run, an elongated spur would probably be pushed up into industrial Yorkshire. There is ample chance, however, to branch off somewhere north of Dunstable with a later trunk to serve the north-east. Principal original extensions will, in the short term, go north of Nottingham to Hull and southwestward to Milford Haven.
The Trunk Pipelines proposals in detail are: Canvey Island to near Barking (22 miles mainly on Gas Board easements): near Barking to Barking Creek (seventenths of a mile over non-residential land); Barking Creek to Victoria Park (5.8 miles along northern outfall sewer); Victoria Park to Greenford (16.8 miles along Regent's Park Canal); Greenford to Denham (six miles along B.R. Western Region); Denham to Birmingham (126 miles along Grand Union Canal); Birmingham to Ellesmere Port (84.5 miles along Shropshire Union Canal).
The application provides for an alternative route around the north of London, for which other wayleaves would be required.