HGVs in towns and cities

[Flying_Monkey]

Lee - it should be pointed out that what happens to be the case at the moment is not the only realistic way things could be - otherwise nothing would ever change. (Not that I think British canals will be regularly used for freight transport again any time soon!)

 

[dondare]

That is brillant dondare, class. you have not got a clue really.

That's why there is a third lane for cars to overtake, and why you have windscreen wipers on your car. In this post you have shown how anti-hgv you are. This is nothing to do with cycling at all, has no relevance and is the mumblings of a pig ignorant t**t with no knowledge of the transport industry at all. Use a canal to transport goods???LMFAO

Goods are transported by canal, it is what they were built to do. More use could be made of them now. The railways too served that purpose (there used to be things called "goods trains") and could also take a lot of bulk transport off the roads.

Not all motorways do have a third lane and the same problem exists on roads that aren't motorways. But I suppose it's only a problem if you're in a hurry and want to go faster than 45mph uphill. Probably better to exercise a little patience and just accept that lorries on roads do slow everyone else down.

Windscreen wipers were invented before road-spray, so that's not what they're for.

 

[dodgy]

Windscreen wipers were invented before road-spray, so that's not what they're for.

Now that is bollocks.

 

[dondare]

I can see your point but the use of trucks to transport things now has been going on for about 36 years (if you go from when the lgv test was introduced, I think 1972, I might be wrong). I'm sure that if there was a better way of transporting goods around the country we would have found it by now. Petrol strike anyone???? September 2002 was it?? I might be wrong on the years. The whole country went dry within two days. Just highlights the importance that trucks play in keeping the infrastructure of this country going. You got the likes of dondare saying we should use trains and canals?!?! more, forget it.

It highlights the stupidity of relying too much on road transport.
As does the huge hike in inflation that comes about from having absolutely everything transported by road when oil prices go up.

 

[dondare]

How do you propose that petrol stations across the country get thier fuel then?

You've got me there. I can't see any alternative to petrol tankers.

Odd thing is, I never actually see any tankers either on the motorways or in town. How do petrol stations get their fuel?

 

[gavintc]

The rail network in UK is optimised for passenger traffic. There is little priority given for freight movement. I read recently that rail only makes economic sense or journeys over 300 miles as the transhipment costs eat away at the reduced transport costs.

Sadly, we got into rail and canal too early and as a nation of pioneers built them a little bit too small. The rest of the world learnt from our mistakes and made the canals wider and deeper and the rail tunnels a more effective size. Changing now would be just too expensive. Fitting smaller wheels to our rolling stock has helped a bit, but we cannot compete with guages found in Europe.

 

[4F]

Goods are transported by canal, it is what they were built to do. More use could be made of them now. The railways too served that purpose (there used to be things called "goods trains") and could also take a lot of bulk transport off the roads.

Not all motorways do have a third lane and the same problem exists on roads that aren't motorways. But I suppose it's only a problem if you're in a hurry and want to go faster than 45mph uphill. Probably better to exercise a little patience and just accept that lorries on roads do slow everyone else down.

Windscreen wipers were invented before road-spray, so that's not what they're for.

Rail can hardly cope with what it has to do now without adding further freight to it. They have recently added new freight rail services ex Felixstowe however rather than increasing the amount of freight being moved what is actually happening is that the same quantity of freight is being moved however just on more trains. This is due to time constraints to get through certain bottlenecks (the viaduct south of Colchester a classic example) on the main line Felixstowe to London and it is virtually impossible to move any more trains through in the time frame.

Without someone spending billions and billions to improve infrustructure things will not change and road is the only viable option.

 

[dondare]

I don't know if your are being funny or not, and I'm almost certain you have seen a petrol tanker at one point.

Give you an idea of the figures involved because I was a tankee a few years ago. At the terminal at Buncefield where I worked we had roughly 120 loads go out in a 24hr period that's over 3.5m litres of product.

Do they travel mostly at night? I really can't remember the last time that I saw one. Have petrol tankers been involved in any of the spate of accidents that triggered this thread? If they have a better safety record than other equivalent sized vehicles then that would be worth finding out why.

 

[dondare]

Hmm, if only Brunel would have stuck with his 7ft guage....

We'd have won the war a bit faster, too. British tanks were designed to fit on railway trucks which is why they were so puny. Getting rid of broad gauge was disasterous but was carried out in the name of progress.

 

[dondare]

day and night

Well, I'll make a point of looking out for them, both on the roads and in the news. As far as the safety thing is concerned, it certainly would be understandable that the drivers of petrol tankers were more safety-conscious than the drivers of cement lorries, for example.

 

[wafflycat]

Do they travel mostly at night? I really can't remember the last time that I saw one. Have petrol tankers been involved in any of the spate of accidents that triggered this thread? If they have a better safety record than other equivalent sized vehicles then that would be worth finding out why.

I see many a fuel tanker on the roads day or night no matter what time I happen to be driving or cycling.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Getting rid of broad gauge was disasterous but was carried out in the name of progress.

The broad gauge was (unfortunately) introduced just that bit too late to become standard in this country. It was a particular pet project of Brunel's and he stuck to it with increasing pig headedness even after it became apparent that Stephenson's "coal wagon" gauge was winning the day. The main reason the broad gauge was abandoned (by Act of Parliament, if I remember rightly) was because of the inconvenience and expense of transhipping freight from wagons of one gauge to wagons of the other ... ring any bells?
Our canals were (mostly) built with narrow locks and bridge holes for reasons of economy, which has prevented them being used for mass transportation of freight - certainly on the scale on which canal freight is used on the continent - pretty much since the day they were built, apart from in the West Yorkshire coalfield. And one of our main north - south railways (the Great Central, from London Marylebone to Sheffield) was built to the continental loading gauge and not completed until 1899: unfortunately (and entirely typically) this is the one that Beeching chose to shut.

 

[dondare]

Whilst the small locks of our canals and the narrow gauge of our railways place constraints on their carrying capacity, at the height of Britain's industrial age they were at the heart of a transport network that moved raw materials and manufactured goods around the country and around the world. Now that we don't produce anything any more and with the collapse of our one remaining industry - banking - won't be able to afford to buy imported stuff either they ought to at least be adequate.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Absolutely. I wasn't trying to make a point there, actually, I just find railway and canal history interesting!

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Although now you mention it ... we may not produce much any more, but we do import a lot of stuff, all of which needs transporting when it gets here. I work for an overnight pallet distribution network which shifts around 5 000 pallets every night and is one of six similar networks. Now, all these pallets go from being with their originator one afternoon to being with the final recipient within one or two days. The canal and railway networks are sadly just not capable of this level of service.