EUROTUNNEL'S PLAN TO BOOST INTERMODAL FREIGHT

The Minimum Usage Charge (MUC), which will end in 2006, meant that British Rail and SNCF guaranteed Eurotunnel's income from rail passengers and freight, currently at a level of #217 million/year. Neither is near the levels for 2006 envisaged when the MUC was set in 1986. Eurotunnel intends to increase rail freight by going into business as an open access operator. The company has applied to the French transport ministry for a train operator's licence to allow it to set up as a traction company. There are plans for a rail freight terminal in Folkestone served by trains running direct from up to 11 countries. The company is preparing a Network Statement, within which there is a pricing element. One reason why the focus has switched from Daventry to Folkestone is the recognition that the need to use wagons built to the restrictive British loading gauge is a disincentive to using rail for international freight. Unlike Daventry, which is restricted to the W9 loading gauge, the Folkestone terminal would accept all wagons capable of reaching Frethun in France.