.eat train drain ross the Channel?
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tHOUGH as Transport .:retary David Howell was used of being anti-rail, there lo evidence of road transport is in his campaign for a Channel tunnel for container trains only. Tom King, his successor at the Department of Transport, has told him that by the end of the century such a tunnel could be carrying 250,000 tons of container traffic abstracted from the roads.
But how can he know? What if those who believe that Britain is finished as a manufacturing nation and that its future lies in the service industries are right? Will British Rail be hauling container-loads of waiters, gasmeter readers, computer programmers, solicitors, dustmen and pickle packers to France in a great train drain?
Even without this promised stimulus, British Rail's fortunes are looking up. A loss of £81.1m in the first 24 weeks of last year has been converted to a net profit of £4.6m after interest charges this year.
And like the pilot fish that precede sharks, shoe-shine men are returning to London Southern Region stations. Mind you, only stockbrokers from Surrey and Sussex could afford 85p for a five-minute shoe-shine, but why not live dangerously and throw in a cup of coffee for a round £2?