by Graham Tutthill

The Port of Dover is winning business back from the Channel Tunnel.

Chief executive Bob Goldfield said there had been an increase in the port’s share of the short-sea market of 11 per cent in freight and four per cent in tourism.

“The short sea freight market decreased between January and August by 18 per cent, or 440,000 vehicles, compared with the same period last year,” said Mr Goldfield.

“The drop in traffic is all to the detriment of the Channel Tunnel which is carrying substantially less traffic than last year - 51 per cent less or 0.5 million trucks.

“This is partly due to the loss of significant contracts to the ferry operators as a result of the fire in September last year as well as a result of the tunnel operator’s pricing policy.

“The forecast for freight traffic through the port is for this sector to end the year slightly up on 2008 by around 15,000 units.”

During the first eight months of the year the short-sea passenger market also decreased by more than eight per cent, a reduction of more than 1.35m people.

“Eurotunnel accounts for the whole of this decline and more with an estimated loss of nearly 1.4m passengers.

“This is partly due to the extended period that Eurotunnel were operating at a lower capacity, but also a reflection of the migration of tunnel traffic to the port after the tunnel regained full capacity. Passengers travelling through the Port of Dover have actually increased by 0.5 per cent or 46,000.

“The forecast for the remainder of the year is for passenger traffic in Dover to drop 0.68m below last year’s level of 13.9m passengers, mainly as a result of the depressed coach market.”

The short sea tourist car market is currently 119,000 cars below the 2008 figure of 3.42m cars.

“Again, the loss is not from the port but from the tunnel operator carrying 198,000 less vehicles (-13 per cent) than during the same period last year. In contrast the port has handled over 2m vehicles, four per cent more than January-August 2008.

“The remainder of the year is expected to return a similar level of car volumes as in 2008, 2.8m vehicles.”

Coaches travelling via the short sea routes have fallen by 11 per cent this year, with the port contributing 45 per cent (5,680 coaches) of this loss and Eurotunnel responsible for the remaining 55 per cent or 6,900 coaches.