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GB Express's Jeff Duval

16th October 1997
Page 57
Page 57, 16th October 1997 — GB Express's Jeff Duval
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already runs 300 piggyback trailers on the company's own block trains—a block train consists of 23 trailers—on services from ports on the Continental side of the Channel to Spain and Italy. "I'd like to see them used in the UK, if the gauge would allow it," he says. "Swap bodies are a Franco-German invention of the seventies, and show that railway engineers do not understand what customers want; piggyback is preferable."

"I do not believe, however, that a London-to-Glasgow piggyback service is a goer," he states. "Rail does not perform economically over such comparatively short distances unless you are prepared to subsidise it. Birmingham to Milan will work much better.

"You don't get the full economic benefit unless you operate block trains yourself, though," he adds. "But there is nothing to prevent three or four operators joining forces and doing so."

The slight differences—four lifting pockets plus a hinged underrun bar—between a trailer destined for piggyback work and a conventional trailer add very little to the price, says Duval. "Krone of Germany produces the best piggyback trailers at the moment," he reckons.

"Piggyback trailers are widely available for rental in Europe," he says. "Transamerica supplies a lot and only charges a small premium for them."

EWS's Julian Worth disagrees with Duval over the distance argument. "We can compete with road over as little as 250 to 300 miles, even with the cost of collection and delivery by road at either end," he claims.

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Locations: Milan, London, Birmingham

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