Ro-ro is on the up ...and up
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RO-RO freight traffic using UK-Continental ferries has grown dramatically this year. The number of vehicles, in cluding unaccompanied trailers, on ro-ro ferries during the first half of 1979 was 17.5 per cent up on the total for the first half of 1978. About half of the 299,000 vehicles that made ro-ro crossings were unaccompanied trailers.
Busiest routes were across the Straits of Dover, accounting for 44 per cent of the total. North Sea routes were only just behind. The other Channel ports west of Folkestone, such as Newhaven and Weymouth, are still small in terms of ro-ro traffic but are growing quickly. Their traffic rising by 28 per cent in the first six months of the year.
Other trends noted in the ro-ro traffic figures were that East Coast routes, traditionally unaccompanied traffic routes, were increasingly used by complete vehicles. In contrast, the short routes across the Channel which used to be almost exclusively accompanied were becoming more popular with unaccompanied traffic.