Jean-Pierre Ramirez, Eurotunnel's Railway Network Director, has no hesitation in dismissing the period from the start of rail freight operations through the Channel Tunnel on June 1 1994 to the first moves towards genuine open access at competitive rates as 'about 14 to 15 years wasted for different reasons'.rnThis story was painfully familiar to his audience at the Rail Freight 2010 conference on July 7. Traffic rose quickly to 3 million tonnes in 1997, remained there until it was severely disrupted by illegal immigrants to the UK in 2001 -02, and then sank to just over 1 million tonnes in 2007 where it remains today.
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