A wartime transport official explains why canals remained valuable despite their slower speed: they used far less petrol per ton-mile than road haulage and spared scarce vehicle tires. The annual freight figure, set beside wartime merchant losses, shows the scale of traffic kept off exposed coastal routes and overloaded roads. Canals were especially well suited to coal, steel, ammunition, and other heavy bulk cargo.
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Canals saved fuel and carried Britain's heavy wartime freight
Britain's inland waterways moved roughly 12 million tons of essential goods a year while saving petrol, rubber, road capacity, and coastal shipping space.