Buxton rail sidings extension will reduce quarry traffic on High Peak roads

The £14m rail freight sidings extension - which allows freight companies to increase their wagons from 18 to 26 - will mean hundreds less lorries on High Peak roads every day.

Each train takes up to 2,500 tonnes of materials - taking the equivalent of 76 lorries off the road and cutting carbon emissions by 76 per cent per tonne of freight.

The 430-metre sidings have been engineered to allow freight companies who use the sidings as a turnback facility to get to quarries such as Dowlow and Tunstead.

Network Rail who built the sidings and building materials company Tarmac say the new sidings will boost productivity in the British construction sector and protect jobs in Buxton’s quarry industry.

Network Rail’s Martin Frobisher said: “This improves the efficiency of rail freight and will be a big improvement.

“This in turn improves the efficiency of the quarries and secures local jobs while improving the competitiveness of rail haulage.

“These are big heavy lorries - it’s great for the local community in terms of jobs and getting lorries off the roads.

“Carrying this material by rail is 76 per cent less carbon on the roads.”

Chris Swann, head of rail at Tarmac, said a more efficient railway meant an easier way of doing business for Tarmac and other aggregates firms.

He hoped this in-turn might ‘come through’ for other businesses in Buxton.

He said: “Our national strategy has long been to run bigger trains - the more economic we can be moving materials is a win for Buxton too.”