Rail Freight
PLANNING PERMISSION has been granted by Cumbria County Council for West Cumbria Mining (WCM) to develop the first new deep coal mine in the UK for more than 30 years. The site at Woodhouse Colliery, south west of Whitehaven, could start producing coal in late 2021.
WCM plans to use the Cumbrian Coast line to transport metallurgical coal (which is of a higher quality than the coal used for power generation) to UK steelworks at Scunthorpe and Port Talbot and to the port of Redcar for export. It has selected Freightliner as its preferred rail freight partner and intends to use Class 70 locos and HHA coal wagons for the trains, saying the ‘70s’ are significantly quieter than other locos. At full mine production, six trains per day operating up to six days per week would be required.
The line currently has capacity to accommodate at least four trains a day, which WCM says would be sufficient for the first three years of mining operations. Signalling improvements between Wigton and Maryport would create an extra train path each hour, which would provide capacity to meet WCM’s requirements thereafter. WCM intends to develop a new underground mine located on a brownfield site. The private company holds a series of licences which together cover an area of around 200 square kilometres off the coast near Whitehaven and has been working since 2014 on plans to extract and process around 2.5 million tonnes of metallurgical coal per year.
This would be supplied into UK and European steel-making coal plants; the UK has no mines which currently produce metallurgical coal, with steelmakers relying on imports from overseas. Development of the plans has included three programmes of coal exploration, detailed feasibility work and engagement with local stakeholders. The planning application was submitted in May 2017, and, following approval, work is expected to start on site before the end of this year, with coal production starting around 24 months after the construction begins.
