□ Dover & Folkestone
□ Channel Tunnel
□ Stansted
■ Gatwick
□ Heathrow
Figure 6: Travel to Near EU - Market Share of Main SE Ports (1993 - 2002)
Source: IPS, Travel Trends
Turning to freight traffic, the international movement of goods to and from the UK is
dominated by road transport. The opening of the Channel Tunnel provided for the
easy movement of freight by train for the first time and it was forecast that a market of
around 6 million tonnes a years was available. It was thought that the tunnel would
find it more difficult to compete with the ferries for road freight traffic and that a
market share of around 18% for the tunnel was likely. Total ro-ro traffic grew from
51.8 million tonnes in 1991 to 78.4 million tonnes in 1999. In fact by 1999 the tunnel
had secured some 25% of the traffic through Channel ports, with the share of Dover
having reduced from 60% in 1993 to 50% in 1999, but this implied a concentration of
traffic on the shortest sea route (Dover-Calais plus tunnel) of well over 75%. This
reflects a major shift in an increasing traffic.
—P—Ports
—∙— Shuttles
Figure 7: Cross Channel Freight Vehicle Numbers (1995 - 2002)
Sources: KCC Tables from: Dover Harbour Board, Eurotunnel, Cruise and Ferry
Info, Hoverspeed, Port Ramsgate
Over the period 1993-99 there was a 55% increase in the number of road goods
vehicles moving between the UK and continental Europe from 2.83 million to 4.38
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