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Traffic comparisons with 20-30 years ago


Philip

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Just wondering if anyone can compare the general level of boat traffic in 90s-2000s with the situation now? I'm not referring to the number of boats on the canals as it is obviously more now because of the increasing amount of boat ownership, but rather the number of boats on the move on a typical day in season; was it generally busier or quieter 25 years ago? 

 

In the mid 90s we generally had a couple of week-long canal holidays a year, both in season (school holidays!) and always based around the Shropshire Union, Llangollen and northern Trent & Mersey Canals. I don't recall much queuing or overcrowding but then I was only about 6 at the time and we avoided the Summer holidays, instead going over the Whit and October half terms.

 

Edited by Philip
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1 hour ago, Ex Brummie said:

But it only goes back to 2001, and only the 2020 and 2021 reports are available online.

 

That said there were lock use recorders mounted around the system long before 2001, so the date probably exists somewhere, but maybe not as comprehensive as the current reports.

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3 hours ago, Ex Brummie said:

 

Thanks for this.

 

I emailed the CRT in the link above and they very kindly provided the document for figures released over 2002-04 which also included 2000 and 2001 figures. I'll try and share the link if I can find the URL as it's currently a pdf document. 

 

Things were generally busier 20 years ago, with a notable increase in 2002 and 2003; some locks on the southern Shropshire Union, Trent and Mersey and the Llangollen canals seeing roughly 1000 more boats back then compared with 2019, although it looks to be the other way round with the Oxford Canal locks.

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Having moved off Cart waters I can't say for definite if it's busier or not.

One think I do know is that there are a lot more clueless idiots on the canal system than there used to be 🤭

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20 minutes ago, Loddon said:

Having moved off Cart waters I can't say for definite if it's busier or not.

One think I do know is that there are a lot more clueless idiots on the canal system than there used to be 🤭

Not suggesting anything, but when I first started boating, I didn't realise quite what a clueless idiot I was, so others being clueless idiots wasn't as noticeable as it is now. I hope I'm now not quite so clueless. No hope for the other bit!

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The western end of the L&L is certainly a lot busier than it was 20+ years ago. 
 

When we first got our own boat in 2003 you would rarely expect to see another moving boat between Rufford and Wigan. Since then and the opening of both the Ribble Link and the Liverpool Link and the opening of 3 new marinas holding c300 boats it has got a lot busier. Yesterday, on a weekday in mid March, admittedly a lovely day we passed 7 boats and many more more moored up but probably in transit.

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Across the system as a whole I don't actually think the amount of moving traffic is that different to 20 years ago, but that conceals a lot of local variation.

 

Sometimes you get a cluster of marina development all at the same time which increases traffic locally - e.g. Braunston (/Napton/Norton) in the late 90s/early 00s, or the eastern T&M a few years after that. The late 90s to c. 2010 saw a boom in new-build private boats, but generally these weren't cruised for that many weeks a year, and meanwhile the previous generation of boaters were getting older and cruising less. So although it meant more boats on the move, the overall effect was perhaps less than you might expect.

 

Hire boat bases can make a big difference. Canaltime used to be a massive thing on the eastern T&M – it felt like half the traffic, though clearly it wasn't that much. Now (I think?) there isn't any hire operation at Sawley at all. Similarly the Llangollen seems significantly quieter to me than 20 years ago, which I suspect is due to changes in the hire boat market.

 

Some waterways just go in or out of favour. The K&A has slowly got busier over the years. The Thames used to be an unusual thing for narrowboaters to do but that started to change in the late 90s, just as the plastic cruiser market was declining. I suspect some of the other rivers might actually be quieter now than 20 years ago. On the canals, there are without doubt fewer GRP cruisers than in the 90s/00s.

 

Cities seem busier. In the 90s, going through Birmingham or Manchester (particularly the Ashton) was viewed as a bit of a brave thing to do, whereas now it's pretty unremarkable.

 

And obviously there's been a massive growth in the number of residential boats with comparatively limited cruising ranges.

Edited by Richard Fairhurst
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Some locks on the four counties ring (Audlem and Cheshire locks) don't record particularly high figures either in the last 3 years or 20 years ago...maybe this dispels the myth that the four counties ring is a very busy route as Waterways World portrays it. The figures for Tyrley and Wheaton Aston are quite a lot higher than Audlem so this indicates a lot of people do 'out and back' trips on the Shropshire Union rather than 'doing the ring'.

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I am curious about the effects of more canals reopening. The effects of Huddersfield, Rochdale and Droitwich must have made changes to cruisiing paterns and boat movements as well as creating new cruising rings.

 

The aspect of hire boating has changed over time with changes to number of hire boaters. There is also the facet of a no go area for hire boaters along the Nene and waterways in the East,

 

 

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10 minutes ago, Heartland said:

There is also the facet of a no go area for hire boaters along the Nene and waterways in the East,

Apart from Foxes and Bridge Boats the two hire companies down there.

Personally I'm glad the Nene scares people off ;)

 

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What has changed, I think, is the number of boats (on northern narrow canals  at least) dumped for weeks/months on end, unoccupied on the towpath. In other places,  the Llangollen for example, where there used to be a lot of unlicensed liveaboard boats on the offside, they've all gone. 

A considerable number of boaters also ignore the signed mooring  limits, which are now regarded more as advisory than anything else. I doubt that's really a change in attitude,  just that there are now more boats cruising long term rather than rushing round a ring in a week.

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22 hours ago, Philip said:

 

Thanks for this.

 

I emailed the CRT in the link above and they very kindly provided the document for figures released over 2002-04 which also included 2000 and 2001 figures. I'll try and share the link if I can find the URL as it's currently a pdf document. 

 

Things were generally busier 20 years ago, with a notable increase in 2002 and 2003; some locks on the southern Shropshire Union, Trent and Mersey and the Llangollen canals seeing roughly 1000 more boats back then compared with 2019, although it looks to be the other way round with the Oxford Canal locks.

Foot & Mouth took out a lot of 2001?

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3 minutes ago, Philip said:

 

Were the canals closed? I thought it was mainly just towpaths away from locks?

Canals were open but you were discouraged from using them.

Disinfectant trays at locks so you had to disinfect your boots getting off and back on your boat . No walking/cycling between locks. It was quiet however some of us managed some boating 😱

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21 hours ago, MartinC said:

Foot & Mouth took out a lot of 2001?

 

We had just got a new rescue dog, Buster, from the RSPCA at the beginning of March 2001 and had a holiday booked for the end of March, starting in the Good Friday on our shareboat.

 

I wanted Buster's first canal experience to be a positive one, not having to disinfect his paws every time he got on or off the boat so I cancelled the holiday, only for John Prescott to remove all restrictions for Easter just after I had cancelled.😦

 

So Buster had to wait until the July for his first canal experience. We did the K&A from the top of Caen Hill to Bath, then turned and went to just before Reading, before returning to the marina at the top of Caen Hill.

Cut Hound (1).jpg

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On 24/03/2022 at 15:53, Loddon said:

Having moved off Cart waters I can't say for definite if it's busier or not.

One think I do know is that there are a lot more clueless idiots on the canal system than there used to be 🤭

But is the % the same :)

 

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We hired a boat at Easter 2001. My recollection is that some restrictions had bern lifted but we still had the bowls of disinfectant for our boots  on the boat and plastic fencing at the locks the guide you through a disinfectant-soaked  pad. Lots of mud-stained sheep in muddy fields. We had to revise our plans at the last minute when a landslip in a cutting blocked our intended route.

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