P&O offers a fare freeze
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• P&O European Ferries has offered to freeze its contract rates for freight and coach operators for a year with an adjustment for inflation as the battle with the Channel Tunnel takes a new twist.
However, in a letter to the Office of Fair Trading, P&O says that it will only hold prices on short-sea routes to France if it can co-operate with other ferry companies to produce a joint service.
Ferry companies are cur rently forced by law to work separately.
The OFT, whose job it is to advise Trade Secretary Peter Utley, is not expected to make a recommendation for at least a month. It could advise LiLley to withdraw the non-co-operation ruling, to keep it, or to refer the matter to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission for further investigation.
Sealink Stena Line says that it will wait until the autumn before it considers joining with P&O to push for a joint service. Sealink, which claims to have around 47% of cross-Channel freight traffic, wants to see the results of its cost-cutting programme before making a decision.
A proposal for a joint ferry service between Dover and Calais was rejected in July 1989. At that time Trade Secretary Nicholas Ridley told the ferry companies to make a renewed case for a joint service nearer the opening of the Channel Tunnel.