'We'll soon be running on coal dust': Heritage Railway chief warns ALL 400 steam trains will be forced to run on coal imported from thousands of miles away after UK's last pit closes in 2022
Steam train operators will have to import coal from thousands of miles away amid pit closures in the UK, experts have warned.
The boss of Heritage Railway Association said businesses will be forced to buy from abroad or will have to run their engines on 'coal dust'.
He said the countries 400 remaining steam locomotives are under increased threat as the last mine in Britain prepares to close in 2022.
It comes after it emerged one heritage steam railway started importing coal from more than 3,000 miles away.
Bodmin and Wenford Railway had been supplied by Ffos-y-Fran in South Wales but is now using products sourced from Kazakhstan after a ban on British mining.
Bodmin and Wenford Railway (pictured) had been supplied by Ffos-y-Fran, an opencast mine less than 200 miles away in South Wales, for the last four years
Mr Oates said the countries 400 remaining steam locomotives (pictured) are under increased threat as the last mine in Britain prepares to close in 2022
Pictured are the two mines in Kazakhstan and the one remaining in South Wales soon set to close
Chief executive of the Heritage Railway Association said Steve Oates: 'Over the past five years, every planning application for a new mine which could have produced the kind of coal we need has been refused.
'There are some limited stocks in reserve, and the last producing mine in the UK, Ffos-y-fran in South Wales, will close in early 2022.
'After that, unless we find an alternative source of supply, heritage railways will be running on coal dust.'
Bodmin and Wenford Railway had been supplied by Ffos-y-Fran, an opencast mine less than 200 miles away in South Wales, for the last four years.
The pit near Merthyr Tydfil, one of the last sources of British coal, is to close in the coming months following the Government's announcement that the fuel will be phased out from February next year.
The boss of Heritage Railway Association said businesses will be forced to buy from abroad or will have to run their engines on 'coal dust'. Pictured: Bodmin Parkway station in Cornwall
It leaves the Cornish railway with little option but to source lower quality coal from a mine 3,100 miles away in Kazakhstan, after the Heritage Railway Association secured special dispensation to continue to use imported supplies despite available resources close by. All other heritage railways will have to soon do the same.
The Bodmin and Wenford Railway, which runs for six-and-a-half miles between Bodmin Parkway and Boscarne Junction, can burn up to two tons of coal a day.
Spokesman Jimmy James said: 'Coal from Kazakhstan is imported through the port of Immingham after a couple of thousand miles of travel across Europe.
'It then reaches Bodmin by road, through yet more eco-unfriendly travel. And it vastly increases the cost.
The Bodmin and Wenford Railway, which runs for six-and-a-half miles between Bodmin Parkway and Boscarne Junction, can burn up to two tons of coal a day
'The Bodmin and Wenford was once part of the Great Western Railway, which used high-quality, less polluting Welsh steam coal to power its locomotives.
'The majority of our locos are ex-GWR, thus purpose-built for the Welsh variety.
'We do not know how reliable the Kazakh source may prove to be, nor as yet how much we will have to raise our prices.'
Mr James said Ffos-y-Fran was primarily there to supply the steel works at Port Talbot and nearby Aberthaw power station, and supplies to steam railways was 'just a small part of their business'.
He added: 'The logic of the steel industry having to import coal from around the world, and not using home resources, appears to be lost on the green lobby.'
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