Chunnel: nine-day wonder?
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A year late, the Channel Tunnel finally opened For business last Thursday. But will drivers use the service once the novelty of transporting loads 40m under the seabed has worn off?
by Juliet Parish • Roy Clementson, a 62-year. )1d driver from Maidstone, made history last week as the Eirst UK driver to carry a commercial load through the :..hannel Tunnel, after its openmg on Thursday (19 May).
Clementson, a driver for Ilythe-based Laser Transport, was one of more than 70 British drivers to make the 35-minute trip, when Eurotunnel launched its long-awaited service on an invitation-only basis.
Currently there is one train carrying 14 lorries per hour from Folkestone and Calais, five days a week between 08:00hrs and midnight. This will build up to a 24-hour "turn up and go" service in July, open to any driver. From July there will be up to three departures from each terminal every hour, seven days a week with room for 28 trucks each crossing.
The tunnel is estimated to cost around 10% more than the ferries. It is understood that Eurotunnel is quoting £270 to 1300 for a single journey for a 38-tonner when the service is fully operational this summer. Laser Transport transport manager John 1-bit, says: -It's only really worth us using the tunnel for deliveries to northern Europe where time savings can be made. But to Southern Italy, the saving would be negligible."
Eurotunnel claims it has given some hauliers equivalent rates to the ferries and has at last announced that non account customers, who pay on arrival to the terminal, will be asked for around £390 for a one-way trip for a 38-tonner. But only 5% of Eurotunnel's freight traffic is anticipated to be from non-account holders.
Last Thursday an uninvited Dutch haulier turned up at Calais wanting to pay cash to use the service on the day of its launch, He was allowed across.
So far about 600 UK and 600 Continental operators have taken out accounts to use the .£10.5 billion tunnel. And Eurotunnel expects to capture 40% of the cross-Channel accompanied freight traffic by 1996, which would be no mean feat considering it is banning all livestock and up to a third of hazardous goods.
Eurotunnel is still awaiting final authorisation from the Inter Governmental Commission to allow the tunnel to take hazardous goods. And hauliers will have to wait until the end of the year to find out if Eurotunnel will accept unaccompanied trailers.