BR STILL BACKS CHUNNEL
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SPECULATION by The Times that the British
Railways board was having second thoughts on the Channel tunnel has been officially denied by Mr. S. C. Robbins, BR chief marketing manager. He stated that the Board welcomed the tunnel decision because it enabled it to ensure that future investment decisions would be complementary to the project.
He wrote: "It has never been visualized that all Continental rail freight services would go through the tunnel; indeed, we have already made it clear that the container services from Harwich to Zeebrugge—an obvious route, for example, from Birmingham to Brussels—will be complementary to the tunnel and are being planned on that basis."
Port-to-port rates below £2 a ton were foreshadowed last week by Mr. Jan Posner, newly appointed manager of the international container services of BR Eastern Region.
II', as was possible, European railways adopted the Freightliner principle, a door-to-door rate could be envisaged at least 40 per cent below the present rates, using road haulage and roll-on, roll-off ferries for long hauls in Europe.
Mr. Posner's -comment, "I think the Channel tunnel people ought to be aware that by 1975 there will be some very sophisticated surface systems in operation", prompted The Times speculation.