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Tesco will be the first major retailer to have goods moved by barge along the Mersey, onto the Ship Canal and into Manchester. The supermarket claims hundreds of lorries can be taken off the roads, reducing congestion and cutting carbon emissions.

"This move will be like taking a step back to the pre-car days of the late Victorian era when a lot of cargo was still transported by canal, and is a step forward in helping to address today's important environmental issues," says Distribution director Laurie McIlwee.

Ship on Manchester Ship Canal

But can Tesco really take the credit? The decision was actually taken by one of Tesco's wine suppliers, Kingsland Wines based in Irlam. It was they who discovered that it was more cost effective to ship their South African and Australian wine from the Port of Liverpool, a move that the supermarket has supported.

Peel Ports – a division of the Peel Group – owns the entire 36 miles of the Manchester Ship Canal, from Liverpool to Salford Quays. According to their marketing director Frank Robotham, Tesco’s support for canal freight is a way of highlighting the benefits of the waterway and not a PR stunt.

“Without having a big company such as Tesco on board, it may not have generated as much interest. The company genuinely supports the move. It is not a way for them to save money; it may actually cost them more to use the service.”

Nothing new

But shipping goods via the Ship Canal is nothing new. A decision by companies such as Shell Chemicals, Associated Octel and Ince Oil to use the waterway to move freight, has led to something of a recovery for the Canal in recent years. Freight on the Canal dropped to 6 million tonnes in 2001. But that figure has now risen to 8 million tonnes a year. 

Frank hopes this figure will continue to rise, now that the new service is in place: “The barge shuttle will offer companies a cost effective and environmentally friendly way to move their goods, and there are plans for a new £90m pound terminal at the Liverpool end to encourage more traffic.’

The new barge shuttle is the first of its kind in the country. It’s been made possible because the Port of Liverpool and the Ship Canal are now under the ownership and together are responsible for the movement of 42 million tonnes of cargo every year. The service runs three times a week and has already received interest from other businesses, including a major manufacturing firm in Trafford Park.

Ship arriving at Manchester Docks

A PR stunt or not, companies who want to move freight in and out of Manchester now have an alternative to fleets of lorries on our motorways. Given time, the Ship Canal could see a return of the traffic that passed through the ‘big ditch’ in its heyday early last century.