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Fire prompts call for open wagon review
Page 10
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THE RAIL FREIGHT Group (REG) wants the use of open wagons to carry lorries in the Channel Tunnel to be re-examined following the recent fire.
REG, representing users and suppliers of freight trains, believes the risks to safety may be too high to justify the continued use of lattice-sided wagons.
Previously, Eurotunnel has rejected the alternative of enclosed wagons, partly because of access difficulties in the event of fire.
REG chairman Tony Berkeley says: "More constraints on the carriage of trucks in open wagons should reflect the had safety record of this type of transport.
"There's a very strong argument for looking in detail at the carriage of lorries through the Channel Tunnel. There must be questions about whether any lorry is safe in an open shuttle with the wind rushing by in the way it does.
"This may give rise to the conclusion that lorries should not be allowed in the tunnel in these types of wagon."
Geoff Dossetter, external affairs director at the Freight Transport Association, says: "I don't accept the nonsense suggestion that lorries should be banned from the shuttle. Let's find out what the cause of this fire was and carefully examine those conclusions."
Eurotunnel spokesman John Keefe says the company is obliged by law to carry lorries, and that the existing wagons repeatedly emerged as the best in a number of safety reviews.
He explains: "At the moment, the rail freight industry isn't using the tunnel quite as much as it could. Truck freight meets a need in the international market."