In article , Troy Steadman
wrote:
Didn't there used to be trains that instead of disgorging their
passengers at the docks actually drove (drove?) steamed on to sidings
on the decks of ships then steamed off Stena-like to continue their
journey across Europe?

When the channel tunnel was started, that thoroughly commercial organisation,
British Railways, started a programme of bringing goods waggons into this
country by ship to build up traffic for when the tunnel opened. The tunnel
took longer to build than planned, so this built up to quite a traffic; I saw
a lot of Italian goods vehicles in Luton. But BR didn't live to harvest the
fruits of its labours - and were there any?

It's ironical to remember how the pundits said that the building of the
channel tunnel would bring vast traffic and make British Railways safe. But
as I understand it, goods traffic, like passenger traffic, has been
disappointing. It's strange how things turn out, not the opposite of what was
expected, but at a slant that makes the forecasts and their negations both
irrelevant.

Michael Bell

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