Is this the end for Tunnel rail freight?
The death knell sounded for Channel Tunnel rail freight last week as stowaways continued to cause havoc, prompting a leading integrator on the route to reveal plans to redirect cargo via Benelux ports.
Damage to containers arriving in the UK has mounted in recent weeks, despite assurances from French authorities that security at SNCF’s Frethun terminal has been stepped up.
“Up to 60% of all units are now being damaged. It’s got worse in the last two weeks and customers are refusing to use the Tunnel, ” said CTL general manager Anthony Gonneville.
CTL, which accounts for almost 20% of Tunnel rail freight traffic, will launch a Manchester to Purfleet service in May, linking with Cobelfret sailings to the continent.
“I think others will follow, ” said Gonneville. “We’re just waiting for SNCF to give us alternative paths to the ports.” “The Channel won’t be sorted out until a long time after the elections in France and I don’t think anything will improve until we’ve all pulled out.” A source close to another major integrator confirmed that abandoning the route was “something we’re taking into consideration”.
Last week 137 asylum seekers were found at EWS’s Dollands Moor terminal, and 181 the week before.
Many more escaped by throwing themselves from trains before they reach the depot.
“Previously most of the problems were with swapbodies, but now they’re getting into steelsided units, ” said Tony Davis, commercial manager of Tunnel integrator Unilog.
“We had one 40ft container which had an 18-inch square chiselled out of the door.” More than 60 of Unilog’s UKbound units have been damaged since Easter, around 20% of its total. “It’s the same for units arriving in Belgium. They get in at Frethun, but get out again when they realise it’s not going to the UK. The damage to cargo and equipment is the same, ” Davis added.
Thierry Polet, general manager of ACI, said there were no plans to give up on Channel Tunnel rail freight as yet, but admitted he did not expect service standards to improve in the next six months.
A spokesman for EWS said: “We’re noticing a big increase in damage to cargo and containers and there’s a lot of human excrement.” Pledges made in early April by SNCF president Louis Gallois that improved security at the terminal would allow 72 trains each week have also proved hollow, with just 40 trains leaving Frethun for the UK last week.
One train from Italy was understood to have been stuck at Frethun for six days as IFW went to press. EWS was expecting to run 40 trains in each direction this week.
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