Eurotunnel to run new route
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• Eurotunnel this week confirmed that the route for its proposed new rail freight service will link Daventry and Dourge, near Lille. The Channel Tunnel operator wants to run Its own service to increase its total share of rail freight. It also wants to introduce more competition for EWS, which is the only freight operator running trains through the tunnel.
EWS is indirectly subsidised for its service because the Strategic Rail Authority pays Eurotunnel £26m a year to cover tunnel access charges. This arrangement comes to an end in 2006 and while EWS is keen to renegotiate the subsidy, Eurotunnel is anxious that more freight operators should be encouraged to use the route.
"Our basic aim is to get more rail freight through the tunnel, so we don't want the subsidy to be limited to one operator," says a spokesman.