Chunnel tolls above ferries
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• Eurotunnel has been demonstrating LG V loading procedures to more than 100 hauliers at Folkestone — but it refuses to say how its rates will compare with the Channel ferries.
The company has decided that its freight rates will only be announced a few months before its service, "Le Shuttle", starts in the last quarter of 1993, but it warns that in most cases the Chunnel will cost hauliers more than the ferries, "You have to take into account the money saved in the journey from motorway to autoroute being cut to only 80 minutes," says Eurotunnel freight director Cristian Zbylut.
When the Chunnel opens a fleet of eight £30m freight shuttles are scheduled to make three crossings an hour in each direction.
An extra shuttle is due to be in service by the end of 1994, allowing an increase to four crossings an hour.
Eurotunnel expects to carry nine million tonnes in the first full year of operating: about 35% of the RD-RC) market.
The 28-truck shuttles have yet to be approved by The Tunnel Safety Authority, which originally wanted fully enclosed wagons to control the spread of fire. But Eurotunnel is confident they will be accepted: by the end of the year it plans to announce which hazardous goods it will carry and how unaccompanied trailers will be handled.