LONDON — Rail freight services through the Channel Tunnel, suspended March 9 after asylum-seekers invaded a depot on the French side, have partially resumed amid tightened security, a wire service reported.
The French government has quadrupled the number of police patrolling the depot at Frethun, near Calais, which is a favored jumping-off point for refugees trying to get to Britain, according to French rail operator SNCF, which runs the yard.
Although some freight trains will be allowed through the tunnel at other times, the bulk of the freight traffic will travel between 9 p.m. (2100 GMT) and 3 a.m. (0300 GMT), when the police guard at Frethun is tightest, SNCF said.
Rail bosses said four trains were sent through the tunnel on Tuesday and nine on Wednesday, and it was hoped 10 would get through later Thursday. SNCF spokesman Eric Martos said the company is “happy we have more (police) as this was the only thing we needed to start traffic again and not have to search for asylum seekers in our trains.
“There are about 60 (police) around the yard at Frethun and it means we can get traffic through,” he said.
Freight trains are regularly disrupted by asylum seekers who stow away in France in the hope of reaching Britain.
Eurotunnel argues that the main source of the problem is an overcrowded Red Cross refugee center in the French town of Sangatte, near the tunnel’s entrance. But the company has failed in several attempts to have the center shut by a court.
The news that trains will only run for six hours caused concern for British freight company English, Welsh & Scottish Railway, which says it has lost 500,000 pounds ( $750,000) a week since services were suspended.
“We cannot sustain the business and we cannot continue to have the business destroyed,” a spokesman said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Having some trains coming through is better than no trains coming through and it’s a step in the right direction but it is not a position from which we can make the business grow.”
SNCF first restricted freight services into Britain in November in an attempt to clear a backlog caused by refugee break-ins. Since then, more than 1,700 EWS trains have been canceled, costing the company more than 5 million pounds ( $7.5 million).
Passenger trains have been unaffected by the suspension.