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Issue 8 2017 - Freight Business Journal


///FRANCE & CHANNEL PORTS


The English Channel has played a vital role in most of Britain’s armed conflicts. But now it finds itself in the front line of a war of words – over Brexit.


of the Tunnel for railfreight?


The Channel Tunnel has had a profound effect on the UK’s international trade – and it continues to spread its influence far and wide. Director of public affairs John Keefe told FBJ in late October that plans were in hand to handle regular through freight trains to and from China, following the highly publicised one-off operations earlier in 2017. While through rail freight


traffic – as opposed to trucks using the Dover-Coquelles freight


shuttles – currently


accounts for only around 8% of the Tunnel’s total freight carryings – it is an area with major growth potential, despite the many setbacks over the years. These have included the various migrant crises and strikes on the French railways. Meanwhile Eurotunnel, along


with the ferry operators and the rest of the UK freight industry, is trying to gauge what the effect of Brexit will be and trying to keep the government focused on the critical, practical issues, says Keefe. “We have done a lot of work with HM Revenue and Customs, raising awareness of the specific issues for us, including the fact that many of our freight flows take only five hours


from despatch to final


delivery, which puts a whole different perspective on things compared with, say the ferry industry.” However, until the


government fixes on a Brexit solution, Eurotunnel cannot really start altering things or building anything. Unlike the ferry industry,


the Channel Tunnel has never operated during the pre- European Single Market era. Even at the early planning stage,


everything was predicated on traffic flowing freely without intervention by customs or other agencies. And


there is very space for such activities.


little In


Folkestone everything has to be squeezed into the small area of space between the sea and the surrounding cliffs and hills, while even the Coquelles area is now constrained by the anti- stowaway fences that have been erected. Modern electronics could


provide something of a solution as far as customs clearance is concerned. Some sort of system could be used to pre-identify freight and verify when it has crossed the fiscal frontier between the UK and European Union. However, says Keefe, “the difficulty comes with things that need to be physically verified, notably


plant and animal


health. We would need proper laboratories


to be built, and


they would probably have to be somewhere inland, away from the border.” Any labs would need land,


sophisticated infrastructure and, moreover, would need to be highly secure. Building would take several years, but Eurotunnel was unable even to start the process because of the uncertainty surrounding Brexit, he said. He


added that this is as


much true of traffic flowing away from the UK as import flows. We export a lot of fish to Europe and there is also Irish meat landbridged via the UK to consider. But business is meanwhile


pretty good, particularly freight. Eurotunnel Group’s total revenues for the third quarter of


2017 rose 3% to €286.4 million, compared to the same period in 2016. Shuttle revenues increased by 4% to €179.3 million while through rail freight train traffic increased by 6%. There was a small downturn


following the spate of bad weather in southern Europe, but traffic has recovered since, says Keefe.


In October 2017, Le Shuttle


Freight set a new record for that month with 142,759 trucks transported, an increase of 5% compared to October in 2016. Since 1 January 2017, 1.369m trucks have crossed the Channel with Le Shuttle Freight, very slightly up on the 1.367m reached at this point last year. There are though concerns


over longer term prospects for freight in the wake of Brexit. Eurotunnel meanwhile has


introduced two of three new 35-wagon truck shuttle trains, with the third on test at time of writing in late October. This is the first new shuttle rolling stock since 1999, and comes in response to surging freight demand, bringing


the total


number of freight shuttles to 18 and boosting the Tunnel’s truck- carrying capacity by 20%. They will allow Eurotunnel to


operate up to eight freight shuttle departures an hour at peak times and allow it to reach its target of 2 million trucks a year by 2020, according to Eurotunnel group chairman and chief executive, Jacques Gounon. In an earlier interview Gounon


revealed that Eurotunnel has an option to buy to further similar shuttle sets, although it is understood that further additions to the locomotive fleet might then be needed to handle the extra traffic. And as an indication just how


important freight has become to the cross-Channel trade, Eurotunnel’s freight frequency generally far outstrips that for the car-carrying passenger shuttles.


One year on, France has a new president, British politicians are grappling with the problems of Brexit but work on the Calais Port 2015 project to enlarge and enhance the gateway by 2021 is still on time. The port’s president-director-


general, Jean Marc Puissesseau, said in early November that, thanks to good weather, work on the five- year project was currently two months ahead of schedule. The €650m extension work comprising a new 3.2km breakwater north of the old port, three new berths capable of taking the largest ferries on the Channel (with space for still more if required) and 110 hectares of land for buildings, parking space and control areas, is all scheduled to be completed by January 2021. The port development would also allow maximum ferry length to go up from the 213 metre maximum currently to around 240m. In fact, provided the new berths


are completed on schedule next year, leaving only buildings and other surface construction to be completed, Puissesseau sees little reason why the project should not be completed on time. “The only thing that could delay


things is Brexit,” he suggests. There is little that the port itself


can do to directly influence the outcome of negotiations, but clearly Calais (and Dover) are very keen to ensure that any controls on


The front line for UK trade Light at the end


New Calais port on schedule


goods take place at the departure port and not on arrival – in a similar way to which the ‘juxtaposed’ passport checks take place today, with UK passport control taking place alongside French controls in Calais, with a similar arrangement in Dover. Any attempt to introduce


controls on arrival in Calais or Dover, will result “in huge difficulties,” says Puissesseau. As for the apparent slow


progress of the Brexit negotiations, he accepts that the flow of traffic probably isn’t the politicians’ top priority right now, compared with issues such as the size of the UK’s financial settlement with the EU. Meanwhile, freight traffic is


doing rather well, Puissesseau continues. “We are slowly gaining back the market share we had ‘pre- Jungle’,” he explains, a reference to the large unofficial migrants camp that sprang up at the very entrance to the port and which meant that truck drivers heading for the port had to run a nightly gauntlet of would-be stowaways trying to get on board UK-bound vehicles. The problems hit Calais port disproportionately hard compared with


the Channel Tunnel or


alternative Channel ports, causing some traffic to divert, but: “We now have a market share of 48% (the market comprising Calais, Dunkirk and the Channel Tunnel) compared with 50% previously,


Strength in diversity for Dover forwarder


Dover-based forwarder John Shirley says his volume of business is well up to last year’s levels and is more diverse than ever. Europe’s music festival scene has produced an interesting source of traffic. No


all festival-goers fancy


the idea of slumming it in a draughty tent and a UK-based company has been doing a


brisk trade in hiring out more substantial portable chalet-type accommodation to the more discerning – or elderly – music lover. The accommodation is


moved by truck from the UK to various festival sites around Europe – and because some of the countries concerned are outside the EU and also as the


and I think we will get it back. At one stage we were under 45%, so we are doing well.” Moreover, in absolute terms, Calais is running at record levels – it hopes to reach the 2 million truck milestone in 2017. The train service operated


by French Railways logistics subsidiary, VIAA from the south of France and Italy to Calais is also doing well, Puissesseau adds, and is on target to be increased from the current two daily trains to four or five by the end of 2018 or early 2019. Clearly, with truck traffic close to 2m a year and with planned growth to 3 million lorries by 2030, not all the traffic can be accommodated on the roads. Once the port improvements are complete, the rail link could be handling 200,000 unaccompanied trucks a year, Puissesseau suggests. Other segments of the market,


particularly passenger coaches, are comparatively weak, he added. The migrant problem hasn’t


totally gone away, although the actual numbers involved are much lower. However, the estimated 500 or so still active in the Calais area are very determined. France’s new President, Emmanuel Macron has come up with a plan to offer political refugees jobs and accommodation while punishing those trying to break into trucks with deportation. “He has said these things, but he has to act,” says Puissesseau.


accommodation is eventually returned back to the UK, it moves under an ATA carnet to allow temporary exportation and subsequent re-importation duty-free. John Shirley also handles a


large amount of East European traffic, including substantial amounts of aid cargo. The forwarder has been involved in shiſting items such as tents imported initially from countries such as India into the UK and moving them by road to refugee camps in East Europe or Turkey.


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