Ferry takes the freight strain...
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BRITISH Rail is making a concerted bid to win international freight business by introducing new fast services to Europe without the need for off-loading.
Known as Ferry Trains, the new services will aim to increase the BR share of the international freight market by a quarter over the next few months — and by as much as half in the next year.
The new services will use a new French port at Dunkerque, which will cut up to 90 minutes off the cross-Channel time. BR says that the documentation for the new service has also been cut to allow it to be even further speeded up.
Services will be monitored by the BR Total Operations Processing System, which is computer-operated to ensure that the freight gets to its destination smoothly.
BR says that the service already has 8,000 railwayowned wagons in service, as well as those owned by private firms. Each wagon is capable of taking a payload of 25 tonnes on open flat trucks.
The services will be available from Birmingham, South Wales and Scotland — but they will be 24 hours slower from these destinations than from the London bases.