In January 2019, DEFRA published its
updated 2019 Clean Air Strategy. As part
of its aim to reduce national particulate
matter emissions, it proposed to phase out
the sale of bituminous coal for household
use and impose strict 2% sulphur limits
on all solid fuels intended to be burnt in
domestic grates in England. As a devolved
issue, this would not affect Wales, Scotland
or Northern Ireland, and there was no
mention of targeting steam railways, nor
any other heritage coal burners.
However, this proposed legislation
presents a grave concern for the whole
preservation industry throughout the UK.
With an estimated 130,000 tonnes of coal
burnt per annum, the household market is
Britain’s major consumer of sized, lumped
coal, i.e. the same size and variety of
coal burnt in steam locomotives, traction
engines, steam ships and most other
steam-powered vehicles and machines. By
comparison, steam railways only consume
an estimated 26,000 tonnes per year, while
the preservation industry as a whole burns
35,000 tonnes.
As a result, preservation works off the
back of (and is entirely reliant upon) the
domestic household market for its supply of
sized, lumped coal. If the sale of traditional
coal for household use is phased out, coal
suppliers and merchants have warned that
the comparatively minimal demand from
the preservation industry alone will not be
enough to sustain their business.
Furthermore, the three opencast mines
from which railways mainly source their
UK-produced coal – Ffos‑y‑Fran in South
Wales, Shotton in Northumberland and
Garlaffen in Ayrshire – are all set to close
in the next couple of years, so in addition
to the impending closure of Britain’s coalfired
power stations by 2025, any such ban
would hasten the decline of an alreadyailing
coal mining industry.
We would thus be forced to import coal
from abroad – namely Russia, as many
railways do already – but without the
demand from the household market to
improve the scale of economies, prices are
expected to rise exponentially. The Heritage
Railway Association estimates this could be
as much as 400% over and above current
prices, and with the majority of railways
unable to offset significantly higher coal
costs, running steam locomotives may no
longer be viable for many, resulting in job
losses and potential railway closures.
Furthermore, without significant
national demand for sized, lumped coal,
the HRA fears that the screening, sizing
and distribution network for handling and
transporting such coal will disappear,
further increasing costs and the challenges
in moving coal to where it is needed.
In short, getting the right coal at the
right price will become very difficult – if
not impossible – all as an unintended
consequence of DEFRA’s plans to eliminate
the burning of coal by households