Yorkshire heritage railways say coal ban is 'threat'
From The BBC
24 May 2019
Two heritage railways fear government measures to limit the burning of coal could affect their ability to operate. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) wants to ban the burning of household coal by 2025. The lines in North and West Yorkshire say they could have to import coal, which would be prohibitively expensive. A Defra spokesman said: "Air pollution is a significant threat to public health and the government has a duty to take action." The North Yorkshire Moors Railway, which runs steam engines between Pickering and Whitby, said the proposed ban was a "significant threat". The Keighley & Worth Valley Railway runs on five miles of track and was used in the film, The Railway Children. Both railways believe the domestic coal ban would make mining it commercially unviable in the UK and they would have to turn to foreign imports at a much greater cost.
Chris Price, the general manager of the North Yorkshire railway, said they were looking at Russian coal. "If we are forced to go abroad, if the domestic coal ban comes in to the UK, that perhaps the government would consider giving a financial subsidy to make sure the cost of coal was kept down," he added. Keighley MP John Grogan said the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway was "crucial to tourism". He said: "I hope the government will live up to the promise they made that they will provide an exemption for heritage railways from the air quality regulations they are going to bring in." The Defra spokesman added: "We understand how important our nation's heritage railways are and the sector raised a number of issues in our consultation."
[I do hope that any projected coal ban – if we go that far – with get an exemption where coal powered trains are concerned. Although I’m not a huge train-head I do appreciate the powerful imagery and the feelings surrounding steam trains. I remember them from the 1960’s and I’ve been on a few of them since then. Their carbon footprint is surely insignificant in global terms. Save the Steam Trains!]
6 comments:
i like steam engines, too, but they could run on other fuels... no?
i recall during the war, English farmers ran their cars on methane from piles of chicken shit...
I agree, a few exceptions to environmental rules for historical or cultural reasons is not going to make or break the fight against climate change.
@ Mudpuddle: I imagine steam engines can run on just about anything.... Wouldn't be quite the same though.. [grin]
@ Brian: Yes, totally agree. Good quality coal and some kind of countervailing carbon capture would be fine. It would be a shame to lose steam engines for a principle.
I guess I will just jump in here and say that if we are going to truly address climate change, there will be many things we will miss.
@ Judy: Agreed. There's lots we're going to have to give up or cut back on the fight Climate Change - and the longer we leave it before the fight gets serious the deeper the cuts will have to go.
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