London Banter - View Single Post - New Bermondsey station (Surrey Canal Road)

[email protected] · January 3rd 16, 05:56 PM posted to uk.transport.london

On 03.01.16 17:18, wrote:
On Sun, 3 Jan 2016 08:41:28 +0000, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message
-sept
ember.org, at 02:54:30 on Sun, 3 Jan 2016, Recliner
remarked:

Canal boats can't hold as much
as a train, and I doubt they could even hold as much as a lorry.

Surely more than a lorry?

A narrowboat and butty carry about 52 tons between them.

Usually a Motor and Butty would have a minimum of two working it
,often the boatmens wife so that is 26 tons per person, Far less than
most lorries. It isn't just a problem for the small dimensioned
canals of most of the British interconnected system the small gauge
being a result of available water supplies. When I first got
interested into Canals commercial traffic on the UK system had albeit
finished except for the odd hobby operation and the Roses Lime juice
run which finished in 1981, so we looked a little in envy at the
Peniches in France which were still earning their keep on waterways
many of which conformed to the Freycinet standard that the French
Government imposed in the1890's. This standard allows vessels of a
size that will carry around 300 Tonnes. Best part of 45 years later
even those canals are now carrying a fraction of the traffic they once
did unable to compete with road. Canals like railways especially
larger size waterways have staff off the vehicle to pay as well,Lock
keepers,Bridge operators ,dredger crews etc etc. and then you have
transshipment costs.
Inland Waterways really only start to become economic with bulk loads
in vessels carrying 1000's rather than 100's of tonnes. You see them
on the Continent because such craft can use Rivers like the Rhine or
the Seine which penetrate the hinterlands for far greater distances
that we have available in the UK. Some modern (ised) really large
artificial navigations do exist but really work in conjunction with
the rivers such as the Rhine Danube Canal finally finished in the
1990's after 30 years of construction. Even than has seen a drop in
traffic .
We have a bit of a romantic notion with canals in the UK
gaily painted boats crewed by a family living on them, the reality
that with the coming of the railways most canal boatmens wages dropped
so much that they could no longer afford to rent a house for the
family so that family had to cram in a small cramped cabin in not
ideal living conditions. Before then boats were operated by two paid
males though one was often just in their teens.
And our small canals are "pretty" , building something that could
carry economic sized vessels would involve more disruption than HS2 or
a Motorway. Not that we have enough water for one any way. The
Continent have the Alps to gather theirs.

G.Harman

I wasn't talking about building anything new, rather than using the
existing infrastructure like the Grand Union or Caledonian.

It would not surprise me if a couple of hipsters would try to use the
canal to ship goods to their start up business to show how
environmentally friendly they are and thus better market themselves as
well as to justify their extortionate prices.