MORE than 20 bulk haulage workers are to be made redundant after their Longridge employers decided to switch from road to rail.

Transport Development Group (TDG), formerly known as W and J Riding Transport, in Whittingham Road, is making 22 of its 85 Longridge drivers redundant this year.

The company has been trading in the town for more than 75 years.

Depot manager Mark Woods said the company had decided to shift a lot of its bulk transport to rail. It has developed a terminal in Grangemouth, Scotland, in an investment costing £10m.

The haulage company employs 6,400 people nationally and uses mostly bulk haulage tankers to transport plastics, most of which is collected in Scotland, around the country.

Within the next few weeks it will have transferred a lot of its work to the rail terminal.

From there the plastics will be hauled by rail to Crewe where the goods will be unloaded on to bulk road tankers and distributed around the country.

Mr Woods said the existing depot in Longridge would remain in operation, but with fewer staff.

"It is because of these changes that we are having to make these redundancies," said Mr Woods.

He said that the high cost of road excise licence tax and the equally high tax on fuel was a contributory factor to the move to invest in rail transport.

"The terminal in Grangemouth is now open and business is being transported gradually into Crewe," he said.

He said he could not comment on individual redundancy cases or whether any job losses would be through natural wastage such as retirement.

He said he was aware the drivers were under the general expectation that redundancies would happen.

Mr Woods added: "The company is currently in communications with the employees and their union."