It seems to me that the freight operators both in the UK and the EU can't solve the problem of moving more new cars by rail.
We have UK to EU and vice versa flows from Dagenham to Speke, Oxford to Purfleet and Bristol and Southampton to Mossend yet no flows through the Channel Tunnel.
There used to be trains from Swindon to Belgium and Sunderland to Italy plus Peugeots from France to Corby through the tunnel.
So why do UK and EU manufacturers insist on railing their cars to a quayside, offloading into a compound, driving them onto a ship and offloading again into another a compound for movement to the their final destination or another compound for storage when a single rail journey means loading at the factory and offloading at the final distribution compound. It's what happens in the EU!
Lots of news cars these days are covered in protective coverings so surely the way to go is by rail? I know there are issues with gauge but the job has been done before (see above) so why not again?
Does anyone know of any flows that might be in the pipeline? The senior Honda Logistics was happy with their last flow to Belgium and the Tunnel guys have reduced their charges so why no action?
We have UK to EU and vice versa flows from Dagenham to Speke, Oxford to Purfleet and Bristol and Southampton to Mossend yet no flows through the Channel Tunnel.
There used to be trains from Swindon to Belgium and Sunderland to Italy plus Peugeots from France to Corby through the tunnel.
So why do UK and EU manufacturers insist on railing their cars to a quayside, offloading into a compound, driving them onto a ship and offloading again into another a compound for movement to the their final destination or another compound for storage when a single rail journey means loading at the factory and offloading at the final distribution compound. It's what happens in the EU!
Lots of news cars these days are covered in protective coverings so surely the way to go is by rail? I know there are issues with gauge but the job has been done before (see above) so why not again?
Does anyone know of any flows that might be in the pipeline? The senior Honda Logistics was happy with their last flow to Belgium and the Tunnel guys have reduced their charges so why no action?