Users shun rail option
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• Hauliers are being told they have escaped the prospect of a massive switch of freight from road to rail when the Channel Tunnel fast rail link opens.
Transport Secretary John McGregor's surprise announcement to get freight on the Folkestone-East London link seems to have been largely written off by rail freight users, the Deparment of Transport and British Rail itself.
Instead it appears most large Continental trains will continue to offload freight on to trucks at the CoqueIles trans-shipment centre near Calais, giving rich pickings for hauliers ready to transport the goods to Britain.
McGregor has asked British Rail to allow for the new line, due open in 1995, to take freight as well as passenger services "if demand warrants it". BR is to consider the potential for passing loops to ease congestion on the route while the Government wants the line to be built to the wider Continental gauge to ac commodate the larger Continental freight trains and piggy-back services.
But the mouthpiece for rail freight users, Rail Freight Group, says: We suspect British Rail will advise the Government that freight enhancements aren't really necessary at the moment. I would be surprised to hear any different." A BR source says: "The Government isn't saying freight will travel on the railway, only that it will allow it if the demand is there. We don't know whether there will be any Continental trains wanting space on it."
And in a paper looking at design standards for the link, the DTp stresses that freight traffic through the tunnel is expected to come up against capacity constraints on the existing network only in 20 years' time. The paper also makes it clear that Continental-size trains are not expected to use the new link, and that if they did it would present problems of bringing the trains into London for trans-shipment to road. At present, there are hopes of introducing the Continental gauge only as far as Stratford, East London.