The Rail Freight Group has welcomed Eurotunnel’s launch of the Eurotunnel Incentive for Capacity Additions (ETICA) scheme.
The scheme, which is available to all railway operators, is a system of financial support for those launching new intermodal rail freight services through the Channel Tunnel.
It will give a one-off year of financial support to start-up investors and will be funded entirely by Eurotunnel itself, with no public subsidy.
The RFG’s executive director, Maggie Simpson, said: “Cross Channel rail freight traffic persistently underperforms its potential, and there are many barriers to success including security fees and tariffs, performance issues in mainland Europe and the difficulties of quickly establishing full trainloads.
“By offering support in the start up phase, the ETICA scheme should help those operators seeking to establish new services, and we look forward to an increase in traffic levels from this welcome initiative.”
