Biggest barge for 30 years travels up Aire and Calder Navigation as owner seeks to revive river freight

With just two return trips by canal each week between the Humber ports and Leeds, the MMS Off-Roader barge could make a significant contribution to reducing carbon emissions and improving road safety, its owners say.

MMS Off-Roader was originally built as a petroleum barge by Yorkshire Dry Dock.

She was purchased by MMS, which is based in Alexandra Dock in Hull, in December 2021, with naval architects engaged to redesign the barge to carry bulk loads. Each 500 tonne load can take up to 25 lorries off roads.

MMS managing director Rob Langton told the Yorkshire Post that the vessel had its first run to Knostrop in Leeds and they were now looking for work.

They are offering a demonstration run to anyone who is considering transporting goods by barge. The vessel can carry a huge range from cans of dog meat through wood pellets to containers and the accommodation is "fabulous", he says.

There's hope of a major contract soon carrying marine aggregates from Hull to Leeds.

Mr Langton, who has a shipyard and also owns and operates offshore support vessels for wind farms, said: "We just had this opportunity and I thought: 'I'm 61, if I don't (do it) now, it will never happen."

He added: "It (the vessel) was specifically built to go up the Aire and Calder - it is the biggest boat to go up for 30 years.

"We are looking for any opportunity to take traffic off the road, and run between any of the Humber ports and any of the inland waterways.

"We would like to think we could work for people like supermarkets, that is what we are aiming for.

"There are return trips from Leeds we'd like to do as well. We think there's a great future."

David Lowe, of the Commercial Boat Operators Association, said: “Commercial traffic is returning to the Aire and Calder Canal after a lot of hard work by a lot of people.

"Britain’s waterways are an underused part of the transport network, with an ability to deliver heavy goods in a quiet but efficient way that helps keep heavy lorries off the roads."

Last year the Government published its ‘Future of Freight’ plan to look at transport and logistics in the UK, including water freight for the first time

It followed campaigning by groups including the Inland Waterways Association and the Commercial Boat Operators Association to get more freight off the roads and on to the waterways.

The plan was welcomed by campaigners, who said the inclusion of water freight was an important step but did not go far enough.

At the time Les Etheridge, Inland Waterways Association National Chair, said: “IWA welcomes the inclusion of inland waterways freight in this report but we feel that more detail and commitment is needed, in order to effect real change. On many inland waterways maximising potential for freight will require investment from navigation authorities to increase the capacity so it is vitally important that the waterways receive adequate funding from government.”