Container costs 'too high'
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• Sending a container through the Channel Tunnel by rail is twice as expensive as the equivalent journey by lorry, says the Railfreight Group.
The price difference is so great that it is cheaper to unload the container from the train at Ashford and put it onto a truck to complete the Channel crossing before returning it to the train, it adds.
The group, which represents rail freight users, says Eurotunnel must make its cross-Channel costs for rail and truck freight more similar if swap-bodies and piggyback trailers are to get a chance to compete.
The group wants Eurotunnel, SNCF and English Scottish & Welsh (ES&W) Railways to charge by the unit carried rather than by weight. It also wants the £200m raised by the
sale of the old Railfreight Distribution to ES&W Railways (formally announced this week) to be spent on reducing tunnel access costs.
European Union Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock has won an agreement from Italy, Germany, Austria and the Netherlands to try railfreight "freeways". At present railfreight movements are hampered by expensive arguments over who should provide traction and staff where trains move across national borders.