A 19% stump in truck traffic to Continent
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IN THE FIRST THREE months of 2009, the number of HGVs travelling from the UK to the Continent dropped to 576,000 — 19% down on the same period in 2008.
Of these trucks, 82,000(19%) were UK-registered — the same proportion as in January-March 2008, Department for Transport (DtT) statistics reveal.
Meanwhile, 2.64 million HGVs travelled from Great Britain to mainland Europe for the year ending March 2009, which is a 9% decrease on the year ending March 2008.
Although the 12 September 2008 fire in the Channel Tkinnel reduced capacity on Eurotunnel services until January 2009, the DfT does not cite this as the reason for the decrease in activity.
Its report states: "Figures suggest that other operators on the Dover to Calais route picked up traffic that would otherwise have travelled through the tunnel."
Despite the year-on-year fall, the Dfr data reveals that the figure is still 95% higher than it was in 1992.
The statistics are compiled from returns provided by RO-RO ferry operators and Eurotunnel.