"Boltar" wrote in message
oups.com...

Surely it can be done at night? Besides , how many people does a slow
moving
low loader inconvenience , especially if its doing 20mph on windy B
road?

You would have thought so - but there are many other factors to take into
consideration also (especially for overnight journeys). For example, train
planning would be involved, in order to roster crews, locomotives and
prepare paths for the movement; the issue (especially overnight) of
engineering work and whether or not signalling centres are open for the
required route (quite a few routes have no overnight cover any more) comes
into the equation. The cost of preparing a train plan and implementing it
may well have made the quoted price to LUL unacceptable and it is far easier
to contract Allelys (or whoever) to do the work. For most of the journeys
major roads and motorways are used for transportation and smaller roads are
only used at the extreme ends of the journey - there is no cost to the
haulier (unless a police escort is required and charged for) for
inconveniencing motorists, whereas Network Rail and the FOCs would factor
such inconvenience into their costs.