HUNDREDS of Scottish mining jobs would be put at risk by plans to increase the charges freight companies pay for transporting coal by rail, the country's biggest producer has warned.
Scottish Coal (SCCL), which has a workforce of nearly 900 and operates eight open-cast mines in Scotland's central belt, said power stations would switch to importing coal from abroad if proposals made by Britain's rail regulator to more than triple track access charges from 2014 went ahead.
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