News - 16 June 2008
Novatrans returns to Channel Tunnel
Novatrans will return to the Channel Tunnel market this autumn with a new service that will link its hub at Lille-Dourges with a terminal in the English Midlands. The intention is to run five pairs/week.
The service will cater for Benelux/Northern France and Paris area traffic ex-road, with other French traffic arriving by rail at the Dourges hub from Marseille, Avignon, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Sète and Lyon. Spanish trafic will come via Novatrans’ daily Perpignan, Bayonne services and in addition Dourges is linked to Italy (Novara) four times per week. Hence there is potentially a big base for the Channel tunnel service. Discussions with competing rail traction providers are ongoing as are those with terminal operators in the English Midlands. Novatrans has not stated where in the Midlands it will call, but it is more likely to be in the West Midlands as that is a bigger market than the East Midlands and there is a bigger choice of terminals. Novatrans pulled out of the Channel Tunnel market when the cost became prohibitive, one year after CTL in which it was a shareholder was forced to wind up following the fiasco of Sangatte.
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