Media centre

Thursday 12 Jan 2012

SOUTH WALES COAL TRADE GETS GREEN WITH TRAINS

Region & Route:

| Wales & Western: Wales & Borders

| Wales & Western

An eight-miles long disused freight line at Cwmgrach has been brought back into use to enable coal produced by Unity Mine to be transported by freight trains to Aberthaw. This successful initiative owes to a collaboration between Network Rail and DB Schenker Rail.

The new rail freight services will help remove over 49 lorries per day from already congested roads in the country, whilst significantly cutting carbon footprints. The freight train, which is operated by DB Schenker, will haul 21 wagons with 70 tonnes of coal on each wagon and will be moved three times a week from the siding in Cwmgrach to Aberthaw.

Mark Langman, route managing director from Network Rail Wales said: “Wales relies on rail and the value of rail freight is considerable. For businesses, rail freight can offer a cheaper, quicker and more practical alternative to moving goods by road.

"Almost £700m of social and environment benefits each year can be attributed to freight traffic on Britain’s railways. For instance, around 80,000 tonnes of waste from Bristol are removed by rail annually.

"Without the railway, the anticipated growth in freight traffic over the next 30 years would mean an extra 1.5m lorry journeys on Britain’s roads each year. Each freight train can take up to 60 lorries off the roads and by shifting traffic from already congested roads to rail will bring greater future benefits.”