A short-term experiment which moved timber by rail rather than on Welsh roads has proved so successful that moves are afoot to make it a more permanent arrangement.
In the trial a total of 4,500 tonnes of timber – or 180 lorry loads – were transported from Aberystwyth station to Kronospan‘s chipboard factory at Chirk, near Wrexham.
Last week transport experts from the Welsh Assembly government met Forestry Commission officials to discuss the project.
A Welsh Assembly government spokesperson said: “The results of the pilot were very encouraging. It is now for the Forestry Commission to work with its commercial partners to identify a suitable company to apply for a Freight Facilities Grant from the Assembly government to make it a longer-term method of transporting timber in Wales.”
John Browne, operations manager with the Forestry Commission, Wales, said ways of making the scheme permanent and seeing how it could be extended to other areas would now be examined.
He added: “Obviously we would need grants to make it work. It’s a political decision more than anything else, but we feel that if we can get private timber suppliers involved as well, that would make it economic.”
