Eurotunnel increases truck shuttle departures

Eurotunnel has once increased the number of truck shuttle departures to meet growing demand for its services.
The peak time schedule - offering six departures an hour in each direction - has been extended on Thursday nights until 2.00am Friday mornings, matching the schedules on Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

“We know that these are the times when our customers are working to particularly tight deadlines and when the volume of traffic is greatest across the Channel,” says Lawrence Strover, Freight Director, Eurotunnel Shuttle Services.
“By extending the peak time schedule when we offer one departure every ten minutes, we can ensure that our customers have the service they need to meet their delivery requirements.”
Eurotunnel now offers 725 truck shuttles departures a week in each direction, with peak time schedules operating from 3.00pm to 2.00am on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights.

The truck shuttles carried 907, 388 trucks in the first nine months of 2002.
Eurotunnel recently completed the infrastructure stage of its £230million development programme to significantly expand truck capacity. Two new tracks and platforms in both the UK and France have been opened, representing the first major expansion of terminal capacity since the Channel Tunnel opened in 1994.

Further truck shuttle capacity will come on stream during 2003, following the optimisation of train paths through the tunnel, and the introduction of the 15th and 16th truck shuttles.

By this time Eurotunnel will have more than doubled its fleet of truck shuttles from seven to 16 since 1999. The number of truck shuttle departures through the tunnel is expected to rise by more than 10 percent in 2003 and by a similar level again in 2004.