Townsend Expects To Carry Six Times More Traffic This Year
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FREIGHT TRAFFIC carried by Townsend Ferries this year from Dover to Calais and Zeebrugge is expected to increase by 600 per cent, to a total of 17,500 vehicles.
This figure has been achieved in only two years since the company—with 40 years' experience of cross-Channel car ferry operations—started carrying roll-on/ roll-off commercial traffic.
During this period, rates have been cut by up to 37 per cent. Two years ago, a haulier receiving maximum discounts paid 24s. per foot for an empty unaccompanied trailer. The current charge is 9s. less at 15s.
Similarly, a loaded trailer, without prime mover, cost 30s. lid. per foot in 1965, and now the rate is 6s. lfd. less at 24s.—a cut of 20 per cent.
Townsend operates three Free Enterprise ships and a special cargo vessel, Autocarrier, which came into service two weeks ago. Traffic carried includes motorized vehicles, trailers, containers and flats (about 300 a week).
• A NEW autostrada linking the towns of Messina and Catania, Sicily's first modern road development, is planned to be in operation by the end of 1970. Nearly 50 miles long it will have two double-track lanes, 45 bridges and viaducts and two tunnels totalling more than four miles. Estimated cost about £40m.