{"id":322151,"date":"2025-11-24T17:17:27","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T07:17:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worldcargonews.com\/?p=91253"},"modified":"2025-11-24T17:17:27","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T07:17:27","slug":"eurotunnel-pulls-out-of-british-freight-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=322151","title":{"rendered":"Eurotunnel pulls out of British freight plans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Getlink, the French parent company of Eurotunnel, has pulled the plug on major Anglo-French rail freight plans, blaming what it calls \u201cunsustainable\u201d UK taxation. The operator of the Channel Tunnel says it will no longer pursue the reopening of a key intermodal terminal on the English side of the Channel and has halted proposals for a new dedicated container train service.<\/strong>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

The company confirmed it has frozen planned UK freight investment, arguing that recent and proposed fiscal measures have rendered the business case \u201cnon-viable.\u201d The most visible casualties are plans to revive the Barking international container terminal in east London and a direct Lille-London intermodal service\u2014both now suspended indefinitely.<\/p>\n

Tax burden at the centre of dispute<\/h2>\n

The announcements come in the run-up to the UK government\u2019s annual budget, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves expected to signal tax rises affecting businesses and consumers. Eurotunnel argues that higher costs will depress demand while eroding margins on cross-Channel traffic. On top of that, the company is in long-running discussions with the UK Valuation Office Agency (VOA), which sets asset-based taxation, over a significant increase in business rates.<\/p>\n

According to Eurotunnel, the VOA is proposing to raise its UK business rates liability by around 200%, from GB\u00a322 million to GB\u00a365 million a year. The company claims that would push overall UK tax levels close to 75% of earnings. Eurotunnel has branded the proposal \u201cunjustified and confiscatory\u201d and says it puts the long-term development of cross-Channel rail freight at risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll our plans are becoming unsustainable\u201d<\/h2>\n

CEO Yann Leriche told UK broadcasters that the current tax regime threatens the viability of Eurotunnel\u2019s investment strategy. \u201cAll our investments, all our plans are becoming unsustainable,\u201d he said in an interview with the BBC. \u201cTo face such an increase is a real issue for us. Because we know, in rail, we invest for the long term.\u201d<\/p>\n

After 18 months of discussions, no agreement has been reached with the VOA. Eurotunnel says it will use \u201call measures at its disposal \u2013 including legal action\u201d under the 1986 Franco-British concession, which gives the operator grounds to challenge unilateral changes that undermine cross-Channel operations.<\/p>\n

Complex commercial backdrop<\/h2>\n

The dispute unfolds amid wider shifts in the Channel Tunnel market. Getlink controls several businesses linked to the infrastructure, including ElecLink (an electricity interconnector), Europorte (a freight traction provider), and Eurotunnel itself, which operates the Le Shuttle road vehicle service.<\/p>\n

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First direct Yiwu – Barking train in 2017. DB Cargo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although often confused with Eurotunnel, Eurostar\u2014a separate company\u2014runs high-speed passenger services through the Tunnel. After decades as the sole passenger operator, it now faces potential competition, with new entrants such as Virgin Group and startup \u201cGemini\u201d (not the shipping alliance) exploring routes between London and continental Europe. That liberalisation has already forced Eurostar to give up exclusive access to a London maintenance depot.<\/p>\n

Barking: a strategic but underused asset<\/h2>\n

The most tangible freight setback is the shelving of plans to revive Barking, the only UK terminal capable of receiving Channel Tunnel rail freight in the larger \u201cContinental gauge\u201d used across Europe. Built to serve as a transhipment hub, Barking was once seen as a gateway for international rail freight, even receiving a landmark \u201cNew Silk Road\u201d train from China<\/a> less than a decade ago. Yet it has been dormant for years, reflecting the broader underuse of the tunnel\u2019s freight capacity. Eurotunnel\u2019s Lille-London service was intended to help change that.<\/p>\n

The withdrawal from Barking and the suspension of the Lille freight proposals highlight the risks UK fiscal policy poses to long-term, capital-intensive rail projects. Rail freight growth in the Channel Tunnel \u2014important for trade and decarbonisation<\/a>\u2014now appears further out of reach. Ironically, some of the strongest criticism of UK financial policy is coming not from domestic industry, but from companies whose operations and interests are decidedly French.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Getlink, the French parent company of Eurotunnel, has pulled the plug on major Anglo-French rail freight plans, blaming what it calls \u201cunsustainable\u201d UK taxation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2859,6372,94,18851,759,12154,5814,85],"tags":[12159],"class_list":["post-322151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-barking","category-eurotunnel","category-france","category-le-shuttle","category-london","category-shipping-logistics","category-tax","category-uk","tag-world-cargo-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=322151"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":322572,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322151\/revisions\/322572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=322151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=322151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=322151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}