Buy booze by the boat load! Barges replace lorries.

Byline: By MARY MURTAGH

BOOZE barges will use Merseyside's water ways to transport almost 2m litres of wine everyweek. Super market giant Tesco is taking lorries off the road and taking their New World wine by water instead.

Ships loaded with containers of wine from Australia, California, Chile and Argentina usually destined for south coast ports will dock at Liverpool instead.

They will then transfer their liquid cargo on to a 60ft long barge for their six-hour and 40-mile journey a long the Manchester ship canal to a bottling factory, where they are packed for Tesco super markets across the UK.

The pioneering environmentally-friendly initiative, the first of its kind in the UK, will bring an extra 1,000 containers a year into Liverpool.

The shuttle started yesterday and three times a week a tug pushing a barge loaded with 60,000 litres of wine will make its way from the River Mersey through five canal locks to Manchester.

Tesco distribution director Laurie McIlwee said: "Other businesses have merely discussed switching over to transporting their cargo by water way one day, but we're actually doing it.

"This will be like taking a step back to the pre-car days of the late Victorian era - when a lot of cargo was transported by canal - but is a step forward in helping address environ mental issues."

The barge will take 50 lorries off the road every week, saving 750,000 miles of HGV journeys and will cut carbon emissions compared with the existing method by80%.

Eric Leather barrow, from Peel Ports, said: "This is a pioneering move, bringing sub stantial extra traffic into our port."

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BOOZE BARGES: 60ft barges will carry wine from the Mersey viacanal to Tesco bottling plant Picture: COLIN LANE