Eurotunnel to Slash Freight Fares

European rail company Eurotunnel is to slash the cost taking rail freight through the Channel Tunnel in a bid to win back more business.

Rail-freight pricing structures for 2008 will see the average toll costing £3,000/€4,500 per train, a reduction of 50% compared to current prices of £5,300/€8,000.

The initiative aims "to re-launch rail-freight through the Channel Tunnel by encouraging the transfer of freight transport to rail, in line with the environmental protection objectives put in place by the governments on either side of the Channel," Eurotunnel says in a statement.

Eurotunnel says its business has steadily declined over the years. Since the opening of the Channel Tunnel in 1994, freight traffic grew to three million tonnes before falling to just over a million tonnes in 2007.

By staff writer