Channel Tunnel freight returning to normal

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Channel freight back on track
Some better rail news, at last. Freight services through the channel tunnel are getting back to normal after months of disruption due to masses of illegal immigrants stowing away on the trains. For months, rail transport was the loser while the whole issue was kicked back and forth like a political football between the British and French governments.

An EWS spokesman said: "It surely cannot be difficult for the Republic of France to find sufficient resources for 24-hour policing of a freight yard."

In May several trains arrived at the Dollands Moor freight terminal in Kent with more than 50 asylum seekers on board. Whole carriage-loads of fresh pasta, fruit and vegetables had to be destroyed when they were found inside. EWS estimated the crisis was costing it �500,000 a week.

The British Freight Group estimated that 6,000 extra lorries are using roads around Calais and Folkestone because of the disruption.

Geoff Dossetter, a spokesman for the Freight Transport Association, said: "The one thing you need from freight trains is reliability. The disruption has delivered a compete absence of that. There's been a major loss of confidence in the product."

European single market commissioner Frits Bolkestein is pursuing legal action against France for breaching the Treaty of Rome, which requires countries to facilitate free trade. But the case could take two years to reach court.

I accept that the whole issue of immigration and asylum is a highly-charged issue, but the way the rail industry has suffered from a political crisis not of their own making is nothing short of scandalous.