News

Channel Tunnel operator Eurotunnel has taken drastic measures to turn around its ailing rail-freight business by slashing tolls for trains by 50%. Eurotunnel hopes the move will encourage the transfer of freight from road back on to rail after traffic slipped to 10% of its design capacity. The tunnel operator blames a lack of competitiveness relative to road transport on falling demand: in 2007, freight traffic  through the tunnel was just over one million tonnes compared with 1997's high of three million. The original design capacity was 10 million tonnes.

Average tolls during 2008 will now be cut in half to £3,000 (€4,500) a simplified pricing structure of a toll per train, taking into account speed and time, will replace a toll per tonne depending on the commodity. Eurotunnel says the move should also enable it to tap into new markets such as intermodal, and will "lead to a reversal of the downward trend in cross-Channel rail freight followed by a rapid return to 1997 levels, with a target of six million tonnes thereafter".

A Eurotunnel spokesman says it has already absorbed its infrastructure costs, so additional traffic over one million tonnes will be "very good news in terms of profitability". It aims to return to 1997 levels of traffic in three to five years. Jacques Gounon, chief executive and chairman of Groupe Eurotunnel SA, says: "This voluntary and pragmatic strategy,  which is backed by our existing railway partners and by the British government, shows that Eurotunnel is strongly committed to the relaunch of cross-Channel rail freight."