Another French 'rolling motorway' for lorries is due to launch between Perpignan and Calais in January 2016. The twice daily service will be run by State railway SNCF logistics subsidiary VIIA, using swing tray wagons to carry the HGVs. Although approved for use in Eurotunnel, there are no current plans to extend the service into the UK, where there has been talk of a terminal at Barking.
More negatively, a much-anticipated rolling motorway service proposed between Lille and the Spanish border - into which €375m had been committed by Government - has been abandoned because it is now seen as not viable. There were also worries about line capacity and the potential for major compensation liabilities in the event of infrastructure failures. - NH
We read it in: Railway Gazette International, June 2015, Intelligence Analysis
