BR offers new r.o. link and
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by JOHN N. FRIEDMAN
IN A "we-mean-business" move, British Railways this week set out to improve and strengthen its freight-shipping links with north-west Europe.
"There will be roll-on roll-off facilities for lorries and trailers at competitive rates," said BR of Step No. 1—a new freight-trainferry service between Harwich and Dunkirk.
It began on Monday: the Eastern Region's Norfolk Ferry left Harwich at 6 a.m., sailed into Dunkirk at 2.15 p.m., upped anchor at 4.15 p.m. and was back in Harwich at 2 o'clock on Tuesday morning.
That's the initial daily timetable (Sundays excepted) for the service—planned to cater particularly for traffic to and from provincial towns: direct rail links through Harwich and by-passing London must obviously arouse the interest of exporters in the Midlands and the North.
And the Harwich-Dunkirk service (which, of course, also carries traffic in conventional rail-ferry wagons) is to be run in association with French National Railways.
FNR last month ordered a shipyard to build it a eontainer/r.o./r.o. vessel especially for the run and hopes to have it in service by the beginning of 1969.
Rates for the present service? They're the same as those on BR's established Harwich-Zeebrugge and Dover-Dunkirk services.
And Norfolk Ferry has been specially modified, an Eastern Region spokesman tells me: "Her passenger accommodation comprises 12 berths in six comfortable twoberth cabins—ideal for lorry drivers and others accompanying freight vehicles." In April 1968, the existing HarwichRotterdam cargo service will switch to high-capacity (Freightliner-type) containers, at the same time as Britain's first fullyintegrated container service using cellular ships starts to operate between Parkeston Quay (Harwich) and Zeebrugge.
This is Step No, 2 in the BR plan.
It is prompted by the emergence of Rotterdam as a major European deep-sea container port and BR aims provide a feeder service for such traffic to and from the UK. Already BR has arranged for its ships to transfer to a new berth in the Eemhaven—heart of Rotterdam's containerhandling complex.
Added the BR spokesman: "The maritime operation will be backed by the expanding Freightliner network. With an integrated system we will be well placed to challenge for a major share of the European freight market."